


History Changes With Time

by AgentCodywolf



Series: Wild, Wild West [5]
Category: Marvel, The Magnificent Seven (2016), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Brace yourself, Crossover, F/M, I'm doing another crossover, Joshua Faraday is the son of Victor Creed, Logan made a better father than Victor though, M/M, Story will be explained, Super Powers AU, Which makes Logan is Uncle, jumps around a lot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-14 10:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 36,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9178243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentCodywolf/pseuds/AgentCodywolf
Summary: Joshua Faraday has been through a lot in his time. He's seen wars fought for many different reasons, has fought on the side of his father and against him. He's hunted his uncle and helped hide him. He's been hunted himself from time to time. The one thing that has not changed is the that the faces always do. When its finally his turn for the ghosts to start popping up, he may need more than his skill with a gun and his healing ability to help him through. Good thing he's got a whole team behind him who is more than willing to cover for him and his somehow not dead boyfriend willing to smack him upside the head if he does something stupid.





	1. In the Beginning

_ 1879 _

It wasn’t uncommon to know someone who was gifted. Doctor’s who had hands that could heal without the use of tools. Women with a voice that could fill a room with a single note. Luck changing at the drop of a hat. People gave credit for those to God, granting his children a chance at a better life out in the wilds of the West.

The gifted weren’t common in cities, in the more civilized parts of the world. People said it was God’s way of evening out the scales. Why grant gifts to those in the lap of luxury? That didn’t stop those with the money and power to seek out those with gifts.

Rose Creek didn’t have many gifted, the few that were kept hidden by the other townsfolk to protect them from Bogue. Doc had a hand at healing, could bring a man back from the brink of death if there was enough life in him. Preacher could make things grow as he saw fit. Mr. David down at the General Store could make things appear out of thin air, using it most often to give candy to children or helping some of the families with supplies when money was tight. Sara could work magic with thread and a needle, from patching up pants to patching up a person. She couldn’t heal like Doc could, but her stitches could hold through anything. They all used their gifts to help the town and so the townsfolk did what they could to protect them.

Bogue had a few gifted in his employ, men twisted enough to use them for evil. The one could make fire appear in his hands, but it seemed he didn’t have much control of it. The Native, Denali, seemed almost feral, his teeth sharp and his hands becoming claws if he got riled up. Other than that, none of the others seemed gifted. Rumor had it, Bogue killed anyone who got in his way, but he took special pleasure out of killing gifted.

So when Emma Cullen and Teddy Quinn went riding off to get Rose Creek an army, it was Teddy who recommended they find some gifted. If they were getting revenge for themselves, why not share that with some other folk. Bogue had hurt others, only seemed fair to let others get the hurt out of their systems, too. He just wasn’t counting on all the men they found being gifted. Emma just laughed at his face and kept on riding when Teddy realized it.

Good people were good people no matter what, Matthew had once told Emma. She believed that whole-heartedly. Which was why, when she looked around the table a few days later at the men gathered to help her town, she knew that things were turning around for the better.

Sam Chisholm was at the head of the table, even though it was round. He was also the first one they found, riding down the main street after taking down a bounty. He had enhanced senses, hearing and sight that were unmatched by a normal human, as well as a memory like a steel trap. He also had a dark past that was somehow linked to Bogue. Emma could respect that.

Joshua Faraday was the next one they found. Well, Chisholm found. He was brash, often drunk and liked to gamble anything and everything. He was quick with a gun, though, and underneath his rough exterior he did care. No one quite knew his gift, but they knew he had one. Emma figured it had something to do with luck. He’d had a few close scrapes from what she had heard. Made sense that Lady Luck was smiling down on him.

Vasquez was an interesting man. First meeting aside, he was a gentleman and apologized for the way he had treated her. He was wary of strangers, which was his right, and didn’t much like getting tricked by anyone. He kept his gift on the down low, only showing her and Chisholm after their first day riding together. He could make fire dance, better than the man working for Bogue.

Goodnight Robicheaux had a similar gift to Chisholm’s, but only his eyes were enhanced. It came in handy for a sharp shooter most of the time, but Emma could see the scars it had left him with. Just because he could see so well didn’t mean he might not see too much.

Billy Rocks did for sure have luck on his side. Goodnight explained it as being able to see what was coming seconds before it happened. Billy explained it as time slowing down for him when he wanted it to. Whichever one it was, Emma could see a good use for it for a man who fought with knives against guns all the time.

Jack Horne had the gift of strength. He could move the unmovable and for man living in the wild, it suited him well. He was gentle as could be around people, almost fearing his gift at times. He handled everyone with great care, hands so kind for a man so big.

Red Harvest had lightning in his fingers. He moved with silent feet and eyes that spoke of wisdom beyond his years. Vasquez was the first one, after Chisholm, to get on with him. He let his fire dance over his fingers for Red to see and soon the two were talking through their powers, flashes of light instead of words conveying their messages.

When it came down to it, the fight would be tough. Emma wouldn’t deny it, but with these men at their backs, she didn’t see, couldn’t see, how they would lose.

_ 2017 _

“We have need of your nephew, Logan,” Charles rested his chin on his folded hands. “The US government has informed me that they have a group of mutants operating under their Department of Defense, similar to the group you were once part of. They’re granting us oversight on this. All files on this group have been classified to the highest order, but I have been granted clearance on them. I want Joshua to operate as our ambassador.”

“Josh ain’t going to like that,” Logan rolled his cigar through his fingers, looking out over the property the school sat on. “He’s not much for government types.”

“Wonder where he gets that from?” Charles smiled softly. “These men willingly accepted to work for the government as a mutant Black ops of sorts. Joshua has experience with this.”

“He’s on his way back from that last mission with Creed,” Logan shrugged. “You can ask him yourself.”

“I did not want to go behind your back on this. I know you see him as your son just as much as he is Victor’s own blood,” Charles wheeled closer. “I know that none of you have a love for the government. I would not ask Joshua to do this without letting you and Victor know what I am asking him.”

“Keep us in the loop on what he’s doing,” Logan nodded roughly. “Lots of strange stuff going on out there. Too many old memories popping up. And that’s not just me getting my memories back. I’d like to spend more time with him and Victor but…We all need to keep moving.”

“He’ll have a few days before he’s shipped out if he accepts,” Charles nodded. “I assume Victor is coming back with him?”

“I would bet on it. Josh was using this little trip to get Victor’s side of everything. I’m sure there’ll be some yelling and drinking involved, but should be a pleasant reunion this time,” Logan straightened up. “If you’ll excuse me, Professor, I have a class I need to go teach.”


	2. Tensions Rise Like the Tide

_ 1879 _

Sam was pretty sure Faraday had been placed on this Earth and in his life to cause as many problems as possible. Goody may have been struggling, but he was trying. Faraday didn’t need to pull it all out into the open for the entire town to see that their sharpshooter wasn’t as great as he used to be. The war had left their scares on everyone and Faraday was old enough to know that. Even not knowing where the man had come from, he was sure Faraday had seen his fair share of death in his time. He got around it by drinking. Goody couldn’t get away from it, no matter how much he drank or smoked.

He had just gotten done talking to Goody and Billy up in their room, making sure Goody was okay. He was now in search of the gambler in question. There were enough tension between all of them for obvious reasons, he needed everyone to at least get along for this final fight. If he had to force it, then he would.

Horne had pointed down the street towards the stables when Sam had stepped out onto the porch into the evening night. Would make sense the man would be spending time with the only living creature on the face of the planet that could stand him for long periods of time. Sam set his hat on his hand firmly and strode down the street, nodding to the townsfolk who called out to him. As he drew to the stable doors, a voice caught his ears and he paused. He wasn’t one for eavesdropping, but the more he knew about Faraday the better. As long as it wasn’t sex, that is.

“…and I don’t think they really like me much,” Faraday’s voice had a strange lilt to it, different from his usual. Almost sounding a little like someone from the Northeast. “I know what Dad would tell me to do, but I don’t have sharp sticks coming out of my hands like you two. One of them is a Confederate, too. One of the ones you told me about, Goodnight Robicheaux. I think you said he killed you once. Shut up, Jack, he doesn’t want to hear your opinions on the matter.”

There was a snort and a stomping of hooves. Faraday laughed softly and Sam finally picked up on the scratching of a pen on paper, “I’m trying to be a good kid here, Jack. Least you could do is support me in this.”

The horse nickered and Faraday huffed out a sigh, “Violent tendencies do run in the family, Jack. I’m not telling them that. Where was I? Oh yeah, Goodnight killing them.”

Alright, that was a strange conversation there. Sam shook his head before shoving the stable door open, making it look like he was checking on his horse instead of listening. Faraday looked up from writing an actual letter while sitting on a stool by his horse’s stall, eyes narrowing when he saw who it was, “Need something?”

“Was just coming to check on this guy here,” Sam walked over to his horse, running a hand down his neck before looking over at Faraday. “Was also looking for you. Didn’t know you could write.”

“I’m a lot more educated than I let on,” Faraday’s voice was back to what it had been sounding like all week. “What did ya want?”

“You were harsh with Goody today. If you have a quarrel with the man, I’d prefer you wait till after this fight to settle it and keep it away from the townsfolk,” Sam turned to fully face the other man. “We all have our secrets. I’d like to keep them that way.”

“I have no quarrel with Goodnight, I only have concerns,” Faraday focused back on writing his letter. “A sharpshooter who can’t even pull the trigger is a man who might just shoot you in the back on accident because he’s not aiming.”

“You’re free to leave whenever you want, just leave the horse,” Sam shrugged, not really caring what the gambler thought. He had more history with Goody than with the younger man, he was loyal to his friends.

“Oh no, I’m seeing this through,” Faraday laughed humorlessly. “It’ll take a lot more then a man like Goodnight Robicheaux to scare me away. There is very little I fear in this world that a little luck hasn’t saved me from.”

“Well then, I’m sure we’ll have to just try extra hard to find something that scares you,” Sam shook his head as he straightened. “Will you behave tomorrow?”

“Sure, I can behave,” Faraday shrugged, eyes staying on the paper. “Don’t if I can say the same for the others, though.”

Sam sighed as he made his way back outside, “Its not them I have to worry about.”

_ 2017 _

Joshua Creed had spent many years studying the art of war. He’d lived through the Civil War, both World Wars, Vietnam and everything since he awoke from the frozen sleep ten years ago. He knew his way around guns almost as well as Deadpool and wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty if need be. He also had a rather nasty habit of carrying around sharp objects on his gun belt and using them even if it didn’t make sense to.

After finding both his father and his uncle after waking up had been a shock. Both had aged like they hadn’t in all their years living on this planet. Logan had grey hair even and his father had trimmed, well, everything. Including the nails, which was just weird. Learning what had happened, why he had been frozen in the first place by Striker, had been hard to hear. Learning that his father and his uncle hadn’t spoken in the nearly 30 years he had been under.

But that’s a story for another day. For now, Joshua just wanted to enjoy the warm afternoon in Upstate New York in peace. They’d gotten in late last night to Xavier’s and after spending weeks with first his uncle and then his father, he wanted some peace.

“I found him!” the familiar voice of Logan reached his ears from where he had holed himself up near what used to be the estate’s stables. It housed cars now, but it had once housed horses. Joshua appreciated that.

“Yay, you found me. Now go away!” Joshua groused from underneath his hat. He was propped up in a chair with his feet on the back of his Harley, trying to just relax. A weird tension had been running under his skin for weeks and couldn’t figure out what. Even killing people with his father hadn’t helped and it normally did.

“Awww, that’s no way to greet your uncle now, is it?” Logan sounded like he was laughing. Joshua tipped his hat up enough to look up at the men standing over him. His father, Victor Creed, stood shoulder to shoulder with his brother, James Logan. As happy as he was to see that his father and uncle were healing their rift, he hated that he was a big part of that.

“I was trying to avoid you two. Obviously it didn’t work,” Joshua sighed before pulling his hat back down.

“Cowboy over here wasn’t even happy gutting people,” Victor sounded disappointed at that and he wasn’t the only one.

“Oh really? I thought you liked killing people like the rest of us. Don’t tell me you’re actually listening to sunshine in the big house now?” Yep, Logan was siding with his father on this one.

“No, I am not siding with Summers or Xavier. I tolerate them, they had decent digs,” Joshua sighed before tipping his hat back up. “I just feel like something was missing.”

“An actual purpose to hunting people down other than remnants of a battle we’ve already won, perhaps?” Logan smiled a little sarcastically. “Get used to it, it what happens where actual peace exists around here.”

“Its been too quiet for too long, something has to be happening. Right?” Joshua sighed unhappily. For all the years he’d walked this planet, he’d never been able to get over his restlessness. Not in a long time.

“Well, good for you Xavier has a job for you,” Victor laughed, slinging an arm over his brother’s shoulders. “I told him you probably wanted to sit around more, actually relax.”

“I’m sure its better than listening to you two all day,” Joshua swung his legs off his Harley and stood, stretching with a yawn. “I think I liked it better when you two were trying to kill each other.”

“You want to be ripped apart again?” Victor snagged his other arm around Joshua’s shoulders as he tried to walk away, pulling his son in close.

“While it was terribly unpleasant, it was better than this affection thing you two got going on,” Joshua tried to pull away, but Logan swung around so they were forming their own little circle, wrapping his arm around Joshua’s waist.

“Missed ya, too, Cowboy,” Logan said as he pressed his forehead to Joshua’s. Victor did the same on the other side. Joshua resisted for a second, for appearance sake, before giving in and wrapping his arms around the other two.

“Missed you, too. Idiots.”


	3. Pain is a Relative Term

_ 1879 _

The end of the battle saw a lot more of Rose Creek smoking then when they had rode into town. Vasquez would admit he had helped in that, but he was also planning on helping to fix all the holes he had put in the buildings. Just as soon as the dead were taken care of. It had been a long day after the fighting had stopped. For all the build up, the battle itself had lasted at most a half hour. For such a shot amount of time, it sure had a lot of blood and death. More death than Vasquez had wanted. Horne, Goody and Billy were all spending the night in the makeshift infirmary that was actually just a bunch of the still stable buildings around the doctor’s office that were now filled with those too injured to leave the doctor’s care just yet. Those three had been some of the lucky ones, not that anyone in the infirmary would agree they were lucky. At least the screams of pain had stopped for now.

Those still able to stand on their own two feet had spent the day gathering the dead. Sam and Red had led the group who had gone out with some of the miners to gather the dead out there. Vasquez had stayed in town after his mad dash out to the hilltop as soon as he was able. After confirming with the man in charge of the body collecting out in the fields that there was nothing up there worth trying to gather other than making sure none of Bogue’s men had any type of healing gift, he’d helped the pastor lay out the townsfolk and miners that were brought in. Bogue’s people had a fire all set up for them just outside of town, the pastor walking out to pray over it briefly, claiming it was to make sure none of them decided to haunt the town. Vasquez had seen him spit into the fire, though, so he knew it was more than that. He wasn’t going to call the pastor out on it, deciding to keep his mind on his job at hand.

By nightfall, they had all the bodies in at least. The bodies of the townsfolk and miners were all wrapped and in the church and school for now, to keep them out of the elements. Tomorrow the more skilled of the able-bodied were going to help build the caskets while the rest were going to be digging the graves. No one had asked any of the six left, but Vasquez knew someone would ask where or if they wanted a grave marker for Faraday. Vasquez wasn’t sure on the where himself, but he did want a marker. He’d need to go up and see to Faraday’s things at some point, or Sam maybe would be better.

Faraday hadn’t gotten along with all of them right away, but in the end he had proven he was there for more than his horse. He’d lifted more than his weight throughout the week helping prepare the town and had provided input that had proven infallible. And he had become someone Vasquez felt responsible for, someone that Vasquez had wanted to see everyday if only for the man’s knowing smile and a quick joke about Vasquez’s people. It would have been enough and the man had to go get himself blown up.

He’d told the boy in the barn that he was too afraid to be responsible for anyone but himself. He’d tried to, once upon a time, to be there for his family. They’d all been killed in front of him and Vasquez couldn’t bring himself to go through that again. Faraday had been the first person in a long list from this town who had made Vasquez really want to try again. It would dishonor him to not see this through.

For now, he, Sam and Red would sit in the bar with Teddy and Emma, moon high in the sky, and drink to the memories of the dead. At least he had company for this part. Vasquez was pretty sure they were all just avoiding going upstairs because Faraday had the first room and none of them wanted to walk by it just yet.

Vasquez was on his fifth shot, well behind Emma who had started drinking by down five shots right away and was on her tenth at least, when Sam tilted his head to the door. It was quiet out, everyone bunked down for the night except those on watch in the infirmary or to shaken up to sleep. No sounds of laughter tonight or song in the streets. It was a time for mourning and each did it in their own way.

Vasquez wouldn’t have noticed the head tilt if he hadn’t been staring intently at the mirror behind the bar, debating if it was worth it to pour another shot or not. Vasquez watched Sam set down his glass of brandy, forehead scrunching up between his eyes. Vasquez sighed and pushed the shot glass away and grabbing his hat, slapping it on his head, “What is it?”

“Hard to tell. Everyone in town is settled for the night, for the most part,” Sam turned to face the door, getting everyone’s attention. Red looked almost happy to not have to drink anymore and Teddy forcibly removed the bottle of whiskey from Emma’s grasp as he watched the three other men.

“Dead walker?” Red cocked his head, trying to find the right word in English, but Vasquez understood.

“Healing factor is what they call it,” Vasquez shrugged, standing up and stretching. “Only heard of rumors of men who could come back from death.”

“Goody saw one, in the war. Shot the man through the head and watched him get up and keep killing a moment later. Said it scared the shit out of him until he told his superior about it. Man laughed and said its not the craziest gift he’s seen,” Sam stood as well, concentrating hard now. “Jack’s kicking up a ruckus now. Whoever it is must be close to the stables.”

“Jack’s out in the paddock now,” Red stood, following Vasquez out into the street. “He broke the stall door after the explosion.”

“I put him there myself,” Vasquez wasn’t sure what his chest was doing, but Jack was his responsibility now. He’d never try to ride that demon horse, but he wasn’t going to let anything happen to him either, “What’s he doing?”

“Sounds excited, I think. Not angry or ready to fight,” Sam said as he moved to keep pace with Vasquez, who had fire dancing on his fingers as they all walked quickly down the street. “I can hear whoever it is now. Sounds like they’re dragging something.”

“Not a wild animal coming to town, right?” Teddy asked from his spot behind them, arm around Emma as she stumbled a little.

“Shoulda brought my gun,” Emma had to add her two bits. Smart girl, but she had a long way to go with dealing with killing someone if she wanted to ride with them.

“No, don’t think so. I smell blood and lot of it. We miss any of Bogue’s men?” Sam glanced at the other two men in the group.

“No, we burned them all. Dead walkers don’t come back from being burned,” Red huffed, looking annoyed. “Checked the hill myself after the townsfolk went through. Nothing was missed that the fire didn’t already take.”

“Well, we missed something,” Vasquez snapped as the stable and paddocks finally came into view. Jack was the only horse in the closest paddock, pressed up against the fence, ears up and head bobbing in what Vasquez took be a friendly manner. He had to strain his eyes a bit, but he spotted the figure just barely, moving through the long grass with a strange gait. He heard the click of Sam’s gun and the creak of Red’s bow as they both drew their weapons, ready for whatever came forward.

“Hello?” Sam called out into the dark as the figure kept moving. It didn’t seem to hear them, just kept coming at its own strange pace. As it got closer, Vasquez was able to pick up some of the noises it was making. The dragging sound Sam had mentioned was possibly, hopefully, a limb it was dragging behind it. There was a strange wheezing sound coming from it to, like air was coming out of the wrong hole or something.

“Can we help you?” Sam tried again and still did not get a response. By now the figure was getting within reach of the light from the lanterns hung around town and Vasquez was in no way prepared to what came into the light, even after a day of dealing with bodies.

The thing didn’t seem to have skin, or at least not a lot of it. One leg was dragging behind, the thing stepping on the side of what possibly was a foot before quickly hopping to the actual foot on the other side. The limb that was possibly a leg was twisted and bloody, somehow sustaining weight when it probably really shouldn’t be. Part of the rib cage was missing and Vasquez could see the lung pumping weakly from the hole in it’s side. The arms at least looked like arms, but a few fingers were missing and the shoulder on the right side. The neck was missing a chunk out of the front and that’s where the wheezing noise was coming from. Worst of all was the face. No nose, no lips, only one eye and the left side was still missing. Pretty sure there were no ears either, which might be why the thing wasn’t responding.

“And the Lord weep,” Sam breathed out next to him and Vasquez heard Red mutter something under his breath as well. Teddy made a strange sound behind him, which was soon followed by retching. Probably Emma.

“What do we do, Sam?” Vasquez asked slowly, watching as the thing kept moving towards them. He could just make out the mouth moving but couldn’t read what they were saying do to the lack of lips. Just a hole in its face opening and closing. Yep, Vasquez was going to have nightmares over this.

“We don’t know who it is or where they came from,” Sam pointed his gun at the thing. “Obviously fire can’t kill it. I say we put it down again and get it somewhere folks won’t see it. Give it some time to heal and we can question whoever it is then.”

“Jack is still excited,” Red said as he loosed his arrow before Sam could fire, hitting the thing in the chest where the heart possibly was. It dropped immediately, almost like the strings had been cut to a puppet.

Vasquez looked over at the horse for the first time since coming out. Jack was standing by the fence, pawing the ground and nickering at the thing on the ground before it all clicked.

“Red…you just shot Faraday.”

_ 2017 _

“We’d like you to be our ambassador for a new military team,” Charles leaned forward, elbows resting on his desk. Joshua sat across from him, legs stretched out in front of him. Logan and Victor waited outside with Jean, Storm and Eric. All of them had seemed nervous for some reason.

“I’ve done that before,” Joshua shrugged, pulling his legs up and leaning forward. “Doesn’t explain why the minions outside are all nervous.”

“Not like this, you haven’t,” Charles sat back and grabbed a thick envelope that had been sitting by his elbows the whole time and handed it to Joshua. “Don’t open it yet. Hear me out first and then go look at the files alone and somewhere private.”

“Starting to worry me here, Chuck,” Joshua raised an eyebrow at the man. So maybe Logan had rubbed off on him more than people realized.

“The CIA, FBI, DEA and the Defense Secretary have all come together to build this team. In that envelope is transcripts from the meetings help to plan the team, dossiers on the team and any other information I found pertinent. You will be going in as my eyes and ears on this team. They created it without us knowing until later in the project and it seems like it was being built for quite a few years. The team will know you work for the X-Men, there is no way around it at this point. You will over see their missions and set in as needed.”

“What’s got you so worried about this team other than alphabet soup all working together?” Joshua weighed the envelope in his hands. Had to be about the same as a textbook.

“The entire team is made up of mutants hand selected by the government to work in a similar fashion as the X-Men already do, just with the government having more control,” Charles looked thoughtful before he continued to speak. “And by hand selected I mean resurrected.”

“Resurrected? How is that possible?” Joshua sat back, running a hand over his mouth. He’d met some nasty mutants in his travels as the years passed. If the government had dug them up, they’d be in a world of hurt.

“I don’t know and I want you to find out. We need to know so we can shut it down before they try to resurrect something they can’t handle,” Charles nodded. “I picked you for a reason, Joshua, and I understand if you say no to this mission after looking over the information. But I want you to hear this from me first. This team falls under Operation Rose Creek. This men were part of a group called the Magnificent Seven back in 1879. I believe you knew them all personally.”

“Holy shit,” Joshua looked at the folder like it was a bomb. “Holy fucking shit.”

Charles smiled sadly, “My sentiments exactly.”


	4. Sometimes It All Starts the Same

_ 1879 _

It was disgusting, really, having the mutation that he had. Faraday had discovered it as a little boy, cutting his hand on a rock while trying to hide from the mean landlord who for some reason did not like him. His mama just told him he was too wild and to stay out of her way. He’d tripped and cut his hand open. Blood had flowed all over his hand and Faraday was sure he was going to be in trouble with someone if he didn’t take care of it himself. He wasn’t sure how, being only four and all, but he had to. Imagine his surprise and wonder when the wound had healed itself. He’d sat there, staring at the once again perfect skin and tried to wrap his hand around this magically thing that had just happened. He knew about gifts; one of the other ladies who lived in the hotel with them could make her body change shape to whatever her customers wanted and one of the serving girls could make ice appear in her hands.

He knew he could never tell his mother or the landlord. But he could tell the shapeshifter, Maria, and the serving girl, Ethel. And he did. He ran right back to the hotel and find Ethel and showed her. Ethel took him to Maria’s room and he showed her, too. They both were amazed and praised him. But they also warned him about what he already knew. He could never let anyone know about this other than them. His mother would sell him just as soon as she knew and there were others who would use him for a profit.

So he was careful and learned skills to make sure he could always protect himself. One of the regulars at the hotel, a mean looking man by the name of Samson, taught him out to play cards and how to then cheat at cards without anyone knowing. Ethel’s man, a deputy by the name of Robert, showed him how to shoot. He made sure they did it where no one would see because he knew the risk it was to Faraday. He saw how the landlord and his mama treated him.

When Faraday’s mother died and the landlord kicked him out, Samson and Robert were there with Maria and Ethel to see him off. Samson gave him a deck of cards, a bag of coins and a horse, telling him that as long as he had a good horse and common sense he’d be fine. Maria made him promise to write from time to time and gave him the name of the man she knew to be his father because “he’s family, even if he don’t know it”. Ethel gave him a hug and told him to never forget them. And Robert gave him a gun belt with a pair of pistols with pearl handles. Engraved in the handles was Maria on one and Ethel on the other. To “never forget these two who may have not been blood, but were family”. He said that he knew that these two had protected Faraday here and now they would continue to protect him, out in the wide world.

Faraday didn’t look back as he rode out of town, but he never forgot those four. He made himself never forget, especially when it seemed the world was only full of people who hated him. He needed to remember people existed who cared. He needed it the most when he finally tracked down one Victor Creed when he was only sixteen years old. But Faraday was losing track of what he was supposed to be focusing on.

Which was the way it was disgusting how he could feel his body knitting him back together on its own. What was worse was remembering where he was. His body tended to get ahead of his brain, which had made for more than a few awkward situations. He was trying to remember where he was and what had happened this time, but he was getting distracted by the feeling of more than a bullet hole healing on his body.

His right leg, down in the bone, snapped all of a sudden and he couldn’t hold back the grunt of pain as he felt his leg trying to reset itself. Yep, no matter how many times it happened, he was sure he was never going to get used to it. He was going to have to see how Logan and Victor could do it, maybe they had a few pointers. He was due for a reunion anyways.

“Guero?” a heavily accented voice broke through his thoughts, drawing attention to the space outside of his body. There was a shift in the air and a hand touched his shoulder cautiously, a thumb rubbing against….bare skin? Faraday forced his eyes to open, his skin feeling a little crinkly. He’d have to investigate that one later, right now he needed to know who was in the room with him.

The man standing over him was familiar, Mexican by the looks of it and with concern in his eyes. Faraday wracked his brain for where they had met but kept getting stuck with that this man was in the room with him, a very naked him by the way, while his body built itself back up. And it was. He felt skin on his face knitting together, a lung only working at half capacity, his leg, a bullet hole in his stomach struggling to seal up…

It came back in a rush, the pain, the fire, the adrenaline right before he threw the dynamite. He’d died, he’d been sure of it. No one he’d heard of with a healing factor had survived burning let alone being blow up.

“Vas,” Faraday gasped, eyes snapping back open even though he didn’t remember them closing. “Vas, I…Vas I can’t…where?”

“Easy, guero,” Vasquez was still there, hand still on his bare shoulder, but now Sam was standing over his shoulder, forehead crinkled in concern. “You….well, we don’t really know.”

“There had been nothing left of you to find, Mr. Faraday,” Sam sounded impressed. “Would have been nice to know about that little trick. A little disquieting to see you piece yourself back together, but a neat little trick all the same.”

“Would’ve been….good to…know….too,” yep, that lung was at only about a quarter capacity still. “We…win?”

Vasquez was staring at his throat, eyes a little tight. Sam nudged him hard and he started with a grunt before shaking himself, “Yeah, yeah we won. Just…you have a hole in your throat…”

“Happens,” Faraday grunted. “Vic got torn….in half…..one.”

“Vic? As in Victor?” Sam raised an eyebrow. “Victor Creed?”

“Why?” Faraday raised an eyebrow, or tried. He felt something move up there, but more than normal.

“Got a telegram this morning, after we had gotten you settled back in your room. For you from a Victor Creed, saying he was on his way and to, and I’m quoting him here, not to do anything that he would do,” Sam did not look happy. “Another healing factor?”

“Yeah, something….like that,” Faraday grunted as he leg snapped again and he heard it this time. He caught Sam and Vasquez wincing as well, “You can…..leave. Not…pretty.”

“You died, guero. No, I am staying,” Vasquez looked a little shaken, but he didn’t move. “I want an explanation later.”

“Yeah….”Faraday wanted one, too, but the whole healing process was exhausting so he just let his eyes close and when back to sleep. Better to not be awake when something decided to regrow. That hurt something awful.

_ 2007 _

Joshua had died many different ways over the many years he had wandered this planet. He had a list of his least favorite ways to go and his favorites. One of his least favorites was freezing. He’d once been on a ship that had sunk up in the Hudson Bay and had woken days later after he’d been fished out. The feeling coming back slowly even after waking up was the worst, the pins and needles all over his body and the inability to move on his own till he was completely unthawed was extremely annoying. So waking once more with the feeling of feeling nothing but still being alive was the start of a very bad day that he knew was not going to get any better any time soon.

His hearing and seeing always came back first, which was nice at least. He could feel his heart beating sluggishly in his chest, which was also helpful. The sooner his organs got with the program, the sooner he could get out of where ever he was.

“…just stopped working! I didn’t touch it!”

“It’s probably just from Storm overpowering the system, Scott. Stay calm, please,” a woman’s voice answered the panicking male. They sounded close by, at least. He wondered what had stopped working.

“Jean, he has a heart beat. Its weak, but the machine’s are picking it up. He didn’t have one when the chamber shut down,” another woman spoke up, accented slightly but he couldn’t place it. Give it a few minutes and he could get his eyes open to get a better idea.

“Someone get Charles down here. Jean, get on that computer and see what you can find on him,” that voice…that voice he knew. He’d know that voice anywhere and could not have been happier.

“L’gan,” Joshua managed to get his lips to work, letting his Uncle know he was going to be ok. They always did that, always tried their hardest to help ease the worried of the whole process. They never knew when something like this happened if it would be the last. It was a concern for all three of them.

All noise in the space stopped except for the machines. A pin could have been dropped and it would have been too loud with how silent it was. Finally, one of the woman spoke, “What did he say?”

“Logan,” Logan, his uncle, said but he sounded…worried. “He said Logan.”

“Scott, go get Charles, now,” the other woman ordered as furious typing could be heard. “Logan, see if you can get him to open his eyes, maybe talk more.”

Faraday laughed in his mind and it came out physically as a snort. Logan, getting someone to talk more? The man would rather kill than talk.

“He seems to find you funny, Jean, how about you try it,” Logan sounded closer and a little nervous, but the warmth on his shoulder was unmistakable. Joshua knew it was Logan’s hand, as surely as anyone could. He focused on his eyes with all his might and they eventually opened. Everything was a little blurry, but the figure standing over him was the right shape to be Logan.

“How l’ng….is ti,” Joshua forced his lips to move as he tilted his head towards Logan, happy to at least know now he was lying on his back. Waking up from being dead while standing was a horrible experience.

“I don’t…how am I suppose to know that?” Logan sounded, different. Wary of him, like he didn’t….no. That was not possible. They’d had some fucked up injuries in the past, but not memory loss.

“L’gan?” Faraday forced his hand to move, trying to reach out to him, suddenly afraid. Something was very, very wrong and he did not like it one bit. As soon as his hand made contact with something, the warmth was gone from his shoulder and he heard a sharp intake of breath.

“Easy, Logan,” a male voice, sounding older than the others, spoke up as something brushed against his mind and tensed up, hand dropping back down to his hip, going for his gun. Nothing was there but fabric, “He means you no harm. He means none of us harm as long as we do not wish him or Logan harm.”

Joshua forced himself to sit up, facing the mysterious voice as well as getting a better look of the room. His eyes were healing, thankfully, even in those short seconds. Years of near death or death experiences had sped up his healing factor to almost be as good as Logan’s. The man who possibly had spoken was older, bald and in some sort of wheelchair. It was like none he had ever seen. There was a dark skinned woman with white hair, another man with strange glasses over his eyes and a red haired woman by a computer looking thing. The older man met his eyes calmly, “We only want to help.”

“Who…are you and where…am I?” Joshua hated how his words slurred, but it was getting easier to speak at least. “And stay out…of my goddamn mind, baldy.”

There was a snort from his side, Logan from the sounds of it. The others just looked a little horrified while the man just smiled serenely, “I am Charles Xavier and my associates here are part of a team called the X-Men. You already seem to know Logan, which is astounding to us. We’ve never met anyone who has known him before who hasn’t tried to kill him.”

“That’s a lie,” Joshua snapped. “Where’s Victor? What have you done to Logan?”

“We have done nothing to Logan that he has not asked us to do. He came to us missing his memory. As to Victor,” the man, Charles, paused. “You don’t happen to mean Victor Creed?”

“None other,” Joshua nodded. “He should be here if Logan is here.”

“Why?” Logan spoke up, venom in his voice.

Joshua turned to him, surprised by it, “Because where you go, he goes.”

“He’s done nothing but tried to kill me every time we have met,” Logan’s eyes were burning with hatred and pain. “How do you know him?”

“He’s my father,” Joshua said slowly, eyes never leaving Logan’s. “And you’re my uncle.”


	5. Introductions: Round One

_ 1879 _

Faraday was used to being woken rudely, especially after the few years he had spent with his father and uncle, learning from them the tricks of the trade. The trade being not dying, which was nice and all until it wasn’t. Like now, when he could still feel his body knitting itself back together. That pesky leg was still putting itself together and his lung was still lagging a bit. All his fingers and toes were accounted for, at least, so Faraday figured he could open his eyes and see why there was so much yelling going on his room.

He never imagined a day where his father and uncle would be in the same room as Sam Chisolm, but it seemed it was happening right now, while he was sleeping of all times. Vasquez was still by Faraday, seated on the edge of the bed and adding as a barrier between him and the angry men in the doorway. Red was standing beside Sam, arms crossed and looking annoyed. He could see Teddy behind the men in the door, looking a little lost and blocking someone else farther down the hall.

As much fun as it was to see this standoff, Faraday really wanted to get his tongue-lashing out of the way so he could go back to sleep. He forced himself to sit up, drawing everyone’s attention as he discovered the only partially healed shoulder on his right side. He swore as the arm gave out, but Vasquez was there to catch him and help him lean against the headboard. He caught his breath and looked back at the others, forcing a smile to his lips, “Fancy seeing all of you here.”

James looked ready to cut his way through the people in his way to check on his nephew. He had always been the better father figure of the two brothers, but had pushed that Faraday acknowledged him only as uncle, not father. Victor tried, at least. He really cared for him, he just didn’t know how to express it. The two had been raised by very different men and it showed whenever Faraday was involved.

Victor himself had his claws out, nails long and hands tensed as he met Faraday’s eyes. Faraday had learned his poker face from his father, at least. Victor didn’t look as openly concerned as Logan, but his eyes gave it away. Faraday tilted his head to the side for a second before nodding at him and Victor relaxed a little. And by a little he meant that he relaxed his hands a little.

“These men are here to see you,” Sam filled the silence, glancing at Faraday briefly before focusing back on the two strangers. “They didn’t want to wait.”

“Good to see you, kid,” James took a step forward, so he was even more into Sam’s space. “Your people here seem a tab bit more protective than what you wrote.”

“Recent development,” Faraday shrugged and winced. Part of a rib had grazed a lung and that hurt like a motherfucker, “Didn’t have time to write about it.”

“For some reason, you being literate is more surprising than the whole healing thing,” Goody called from somewhere in the hallway, possibly who Teddy was keeping back. “Although, Sam wouldn’t let me poke your lung earlier. I was quite fascinated by the whole thing.”

“He didn’t shoot me,” Faraday cut in as Victor growled, starting to turn towards the voice. “He shot the people shooting me.”

“He put a bullet in Logan’s head,” Victor snarled, sounding more feral than normal. “We fought them, boy.”

“Oh, let it go,” Faraday flapped a hand at him. “You killed his buddies, too. Sam, let them through before someone stabs someone.”

Sam hesitated for a second before he moved out of the way. Red was a little slower, making sure the two saw the lightning crackling in his fingers before he moved as well. Victor let James go first, following behind him just a step. Vasquez moved so he was sitting at the head of the bed as well, giving James some space to sit down as well but still acting as a barrier for Faraday. Awwww, they did care about him.

James shot a glare at Vasquez before tilting Faraday’s chin up to look at his neck for some reason. He tapped Faraday’s neck with his free hand and oh wow, that felt weird, finger on muscle there, “Not covering it up?”

“Didn’t know it was there,” Faraday shrugged weakly. “Although…I think Vas mentioned it?”

“I did, last time you woke up, guero,” Vasquez supplied from his spoke. “It was worse yesterday. The day before was just a big hole with some blood.”

“What did you get in a fight with this time?” Victor snapped, Faraday easily seeing his sharp teeth at this distance.

“Like I wrote, the good folks around here were being oppressed,” Faraday looked up at his father, smiling a shy smile in the hopes it would dissuade this line of questioning. “I helped stop the oppressors.”

“Yeah, and they were?” James pulled the button up away to examine the bandages on Faraday’s shoulder. “Last time you were laid up for three days it was because you crossed paths with an actual bear. The man down the hall doesn’t count.”

“Horne is harmless,” Faraday smirked, but sobered quickly at James’s scowl. “Can it wait till maybe tomorrow?”

“You may be 28 years old, Joshua Faraday, but I will still put you over my knee,” Victor snapped. “Who did this to you?”

“They had a gatling gun, ok?” Faraday sighed, knowing that tone. “It was killing people. We wouldn’t have won, so I came up with a plan. A stupid one, but a plan none the less.”

“He’s not going to tell us,” James sighed before reluctantly looking at Vasquez. “What did he do?”

“He blew himself up,” Vasquez ignored Faraday’s panicked look as he met James’s stare coolly. “Wandered into town that night, look like thing from hell.”

“You what?” Victor was shoving James and Vasquez off the bed, getting in Faraday’s space as he gripped his chin tightly. “You know what fire does to us!”

“I came back!” Faraday stayed limp in his grip, more out of trust than anything. Victor would never hurt him, never. He was scared, Faraday could see it in his eyes, “I thought I was dead and then I wasn’t.”

“Victor, calm down,” James tried to pull his brother away with one hand while the other had his claws out, pointed at the others who were all trying to rush forward. “I’m sure he can explain.”

“You stupid child,” Victor’s grip loosened, his hand sliding down to the back of his neck. “You stupid, stupid boy.”

“I came back. All of me. I remember everything, I promise,” Faraday reached out and gripped the leg that Victor had propped on the bed as tightly as he could. “I wasn’t going to let anyone else die, not when I could do something.”

“Your momma would have both our hides if she was here,” Victor let out small laugh before finally pulling away, standing in one fluid motion and facing the others. “The doctor checking in on him?”

“When he has time,” Sam had his gun out, pointed at Victor and James. “Faraday, you ok?”

“I’m fine, Sam. Holy shit, one father is enough, thank you. Everyone relax, we’re doing this backwards,” Faraday gestured to Vasquez, who was stuck awkwardly sitting on the bedside table to keep from getting stabbed. “Sit back down, they won’t hurt you.”

“They have claws in their hands, guero,” Vasquez eyed James warily, but sat back down on the bed. “I only have fire. They anything like you, then I don’t stand a chance.”

“Fire still hurts plenty,” Faraday scoffed and stared pointedly at the others till they all relaxed. Logan sat down on the bed, down by Faraday’s legs while Victor leaned against the end of the bed. Sam moved out of the doorway, letting Goody limp in and take the open chair while Billy and Teddy moved into the doorway. Red just shifted so he was leaning against the wall. Once everyone settled, Faraday smiled brightly, “Introductions!”

“We already did that, Cowboy,” Victor snorted. “Even the woman downstairs.”

“Well obviously it was horrible,” Faraday glared at him. “Everyone, the guy with the semi-decent people skills is my uncle, James. The other one is his brother and my father, Victor. Thank you for coming, as you can see I am whole, you can.”

“Father? Whoa there, Faraday. You have never mentioned a father,” Goody leaned forward, one hand wrapped around his middle. “You don’t mention a lot of things, but we’ll start with that.”

“We asked him not to,” James cut in before Faraday could. “Healing factors are rare enough. A family of them? Men like Bogue would be hunting us before your Asian friend could pull his pig sticker out of his hair. No offense, of course.”

“None taken,” Billy shrugged, looking almost bored. Almost.

“Its bad enough those two travel together,” Faraday added. “At least they have the claws to work with. That fun addition skipped me. All I’ve got are my guns. Plus, I’m used to them not being around. No offense.”

“Plenty taken,” Victor sighed, because he knew this was an argument that was always going to come up. Faraday didn’t care they hadn’t been there when he was little, James and Victor did.

“How much of you got blown up?” James focused back on Faraday. “Whole parts of you, but we’ve all regrown limbs before.”

“Well…I’m not sure?” Faraday looked at the others for help. “I just kinda woke up in the field but I wasn’t…me then.”

“There was nothing that I could find when I went out,” Vasquez said softly. “I searched and so did Red a few hours later.”

“We burned all of Bogue’s men,” Red added. “I was gathering up the remains to make sure none of his dead walkers awoke.”

“How?” James breathed out, hand gripping Faraday’s leg through the blanket. Faraday shifted uncomfortably at the attention but didn’t comment on it.

“I don’t know. I really don’t,” Faraday sighed, looking down at his hands in his lap. “I thought I had died. I don’t…”

Faraday couldn’t get the next words out, but he knew his father and uncle knew what they were. Both had had their fair share of near death experiences to know what Faraday was feeling. If this didn’t kill him, what could?

James cleared his throat, standing suddenly and drawing everyone’s attention from Faraday, “We need a room. And stalls for our horses.”

“Get some rest,” Victor reached down and squeezed Faraday’s leg. “We’ll talk later.”

“I just woke up,” Faraday made sure to sound whiney, but he was honestly glad for the distraction.

“Goody should got back to bed, too,” Vasquez added, not moving from his spot. “Too much excitement for you is bad.”

“Let’s go, Goody,” Billy reached down and pulled Goody up, steering him out of the room as the other man complained, Teddy on their heels. Red followed silently, going in the opposite direction as them out the door.

Sam waited for Victor and James to draw level with him before speaking, “I’ll show you two around, introduce you to a few people.”

“Sounds good,” James nodded, following Sam out of the room. Victor followed, closing the door after giving Faraday a soft smile.

Vasquez and Faraday sat in silence for a moment before Faraday spoke, “You don’t have to stay.”

“Get some rest, I’ll keep watch,” Vasquez just laughed, pressing lightly against Faraday. “I’ve watched your skin grow, you ain’t getting rid of me so easily, guerito.”

“What does that even mean?” Faraday couldn’t stop the smile tugging at his lips, leaning right back. “That one’s different.”

Vasquez just smiled at him, laughter in his eyes, “Learn some Spanish, cabron, and then you know.”


	6. Where Things First Went Wrong

1977

“All I’m saying is that it’s a little far out,” Josh laughed as he swung his and his girlfriend’s hands between them. It was dark out, but the city lights were bright enough to light their way from the movie theater back to their shared apartment, “I mean, really. Humans in space, fighting each other and aliens with this all powerful thing that binds them all together?”

“I can’t wait for the next one!” Kayla Fox laughed at him, turning so she was walking backwards and facing him. “I know you loved it.”

“I might have to go back and re-watch it a few times to form a complete opinion on it,” Josh smiled as he stopped, pulling her in close and wrapping both arms around her. “Come with me?”

“If its when neither of us are at work. Because we’re responsible adults,” Kayla pressed against him, her smile only growing.

“Are we now?” Josh laughed, pressing his forehead to her’s. He’d only been dating Kayla for around a year, but he loved her, almost as much as he had loved Vas. He wasn’t using her as a replacement, but he actually felt like he was finally letting go of Vas. He wanted to introduce her to Logan and Victor, show her his powers, make her a part of his life for as long as he could have her.

“I like to think I am. You might still need some work,” Kayla wrapped her arms around his, leaning in. Before he could complete the kiss, someone knocked into them. His grip on Kayla was the only thing that kept her upright.

“Hey, watch it,” Josh straightened up, hackles up as the guy, a decent sized guy, turned back towards them. Not too many people were on the street at this time of the night, so the guy had had the whole rest of the sidewalk to himself.

“How about you watch it,” the guy snapped just as a van turned onto the street, coming towards them. Josh glanced between the two before moving so that he was between Kayla and the man.

“I suggest you keep walking,” Josh snarled as he felt Kayla slip her hand onto his neck. All of his anger dissipated just as the van pulled to a stop at the curb and two more men filed out the side door.

“I’m sorry, Josh,” Kayla whispered into his ear before something was pressed into his neck, a needle possibly, and something cool washed into veins. “Walk towards the van.”

Josh started walking, unable to resist. Blackness was starting to enter his vision as he reached the three men. His legs gave out then and the two men from the van caught him. The third one moved from his view as Kayla’s hand left his neck. The last thing he heard was, “We’ve got a new assignment for you, Silverfox.”

#

Josh slowly came to, feeling the drugs still flowing through his system but at possibly at a lower dosage. Someone was yelling, obviously furious about something. Someone else was trying to calm them down, but Josh was having trouble understanding what they were all saying. He fought against the drugs, needing to know what was going on as he remembered how he had gotten drugged. Kayla had betrayed him. Kayla, a plain, ordinary human being. She had touched him, like she had a million times before, and he had willingly had done what she had told him to do. Oh god, was any of it real?

A wounded sound escaped his throat as he finally pushed past the drugs, forcing his eyes open. He was in some sort of lab space, an IV attached to his arm and probably pumping in the drugs that were keeping his compliant. At his groan, the voices had stopped and Josh waited, hoping them would come back. Everything was a little blurry and he couldn’t really move his head to move around. He tried to sit up even though his body felt heavy and found his arms held down firmly. Wiggling his body the little that he could found his legs were held down as well and something was holding his head in place.

“Let him go,” Victor’s familiar, comforting timber reached his ears, voice tinged with barely contained fury.

“I will not, Mr. Creed,” another voice, male, answered. “Not until you do what I need you to do.”

“You’ve got others who will do this for you, let him go!” Victor had to have his claws out, but Josh couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t attacking.

“As long as I have you son, Mr. Creed, you will work for me. And if you don’t complete your orders to the letter, you know exactly what I will do to Mr. Faraday,” the man sounded like he was smiling. What would he do to him? Josh sucked in a harsh breath, realizing what was going on. Someone was using him as a bargaining chip against Victor. For what reason, he didn’t know but Victor did.

“Don’t,” Josh forced out, starting to struggle against the bonds holding him in place.

“He’s awake,” a woman’s voice called out and rushed footsteps could be heard. Victor appeared above him, face drawn and eyes panicky.

“I’ll get you out, I promise,” Victor pressed a hand against the side of Josh’s face before he was being pulled away and electricity was coursing through Josh. He couldn’t breath and he could hear Victor roaring in fury. The electricity eventually cut out and another face appeared above him, this one of an older man, military probably.

“Hello, Mr. Faraday. It seems you and I will be getting to know each other very well for the time being,” the man’s smile was that of a snake, sharp and knowing something dangerous. “I’m Colonel Stryker and as long as your father behaves, nothing too terrible will happen to you.”

“I’ll kill you, Stryker!” Victor roared from somewhere far away, Stryker’s own face growing blurry as the drugs flowed faster into his veins.

“Once Mr. Creed is clear, move Mr. Faraday to our Beta site. He’s to remain under until I say otherwise,” Stryker’s voice was fading away, growing distant. “Let Dr. Parker know that the subject he requested is on the way as well. I look forward to seeing his results.”

Josh didn’t know what was going to happen, but the last thing he felt before he slipped into the darkness was fear. And he hated that feeling above all others.


	7. Family Reunion Part One

1867

It took Joshua nearly three years to find his father. With the end of the Civil War, finding anyone was pretty hard. He’d read stories in the newspapers about men being wrongfully identified and sending bodies home to the wrong families. Also, making sure people believed he was older than he was added another hindrance to his already difficult task. Having only recently turned sixteen, Joshua managed to pass off as around eighteen. Too young to have fought but too old for people to question why he wasn’t with his family. He could try to pass off as older, especially if he let his facial hair grow out a little more than he had. The problem with that, though, was people saw the guns on his hips and the rifle on his saddle and assumed he’d fought in the war. He’d learned to lie real quick about fighting. Some people weren’t too happy about young men not doing their duty for the government.

But he had made it, finally, to his destination. Which was saying something, because this farm was in the middle of nowhere, as far from town as someone could get and then some. Joshua pulled his horse to a stop at the entrance to the property and took a good look around. There was an actual road out to the property, at least, so still in somewhat civilized territory. The entrance to the property was a poorly tended dirt path with a fence running between the road and property acting as a buffer on either side of the gap that possibly was supposed to be the front gate. If they wanted a front gate, that is. Nothing stood in the gap now except for some weeds.

The grass wasn’t long in the yard, but that might be because of the goats wandering around near the barn. Out behind the house he could make out more fencing, probably for other livestock. The house itself, and the barn for that matter, resembled something out of one of those adventure stories he’d read when he was younger. A cabin out in the north woods, made of logs and tar. Both were in good shape, but nothing fancy about it.

Which seemed to exactly be what the current residents had wanted. From just asking around the nearest town, the two men who lived here claimed to be brothers, fresh from the war. Victor Creed and his brother, Logan, only came into town every few weeks and stocked up quickly before clearing out just as fast. They had a good relationship with the general store owner, but some of the other townsfolk weren’t too happy with them. He couldn’t get the story out of  the shop keeper, just a warning to not mention he was “friends” with those two. For all the man knew, Joshua was a fellow soldier out of the same company trying to track down his old comrades.

Joshua shook himself out of his thoughts and nudged his horse forward. It was a new one, the one that had been given to him traded long ago to avoid unpleasantness before he had gotten his feet under him. This one was a little older, a little sturdier and a lot stockier in type, which was just fine for Joshua. She was proving to be very dependable in any situation, including being shot at. He should really stop pissing people off.

Joshua let his eyes wander as they took a slow pace up the dirt path to the house. Nothing was moving in the yard except for the goats. He could see some cows out by the barn and assumed there were horses around somewhere. No dogs barking, so he didn’t have to worry about those. He noticed that the curtains in one of the front window moved, but he ignored them. His pistols were one his hips but unloaded and his rifle was visible but secured. Plus, if they attacked him, he’d be walking away with shredded clothes and nothing more.

Just was he was drawing level with the front porch, someone finally stepped outside. He was around the same size as Joshua and carrying a rifle in his arms, eyes looking just a bit dangerous. His hair was short and his beard was kept mostly neat. Joshua wasn’t sure which one this one was, but he had a feeling he was going to find out real quick.

“Hello, there,” Josh pulled the mare to a stop and tipped his hat at the men, making sure he stayed relaxed. “Nice day today, ain’t it?”

“Do you need something?” the man growled, hands tightening on the gun.

“I’m looking for Victor Creed, actually. Folks in town said he lived here,” Joshua leaned against the pommel of his saddle, smiling brightly. People told him his smile made them feel safe.

“Don’t know him,” the man grunted. “Keep riding.”

“Right, right, of course you don’t know him,” Joshua nodded, still smiling. “Happens all the time, forgetting siblings and all that. You’re James, right?”

The man tensed for a second before he brought the rifle up and pointed it at Joshua, “You want to die, boy?”

“Not particularly, no. Not because of Victor Creed, anyhow. Which, let me tell you, there’s a few people out there who do not like him,” Joshua shrugged casually. “Although I am very happy to meet someone who is not trigger happy when I bring up his name. I have gotten very good at dodging bullets these last few years.”

“How fast?” another voice growled, coming from towards the barn, causing Joshua to start. He shifted to look and found a shotgun pointed at him from only a few feet away. The man was the size of a small mountain, how the hell had he gotten there so quietly?

“Not fast enough to avoid a shotgun,” Joshua slowly raised his hands. “Victor Creed?”

“They sent a child after us? How pathetic,” Victor Creed looked unamused.

“Um, begging your pardon, but I am sixteen years old,” Joshua huffed. “Not a child.”

“Go run back to your mama and forget you ever found me or my brother,” James said, adding emphasis to his words by clearly cocking the rifle. “And tell whoever sent you to send someone worthwhile next time.”

“Look, I have no clue who is hunting you two or why, but I came here for a reason and I ain’t leaving till I’ve done it,” Joshua snapped, letting his smile slip. “My mama is dead, so that whole running back to her would be useless anyway. Not that you would care.”

“Sorry about your loss, now leave,” Victor snapped, tightening his grip on his shotgun.

“She was right about you, ya know,” Joshua laughed humorlessly. “Only talked about you once and that was to tell me you were nothing but a useless jackass who was a better man than I could ever be. Name’s Joshua Faraday, but the way. You knew my mother. Slept with her, once. And then I popped out.”

“Holy Mother of God,” James breathed out, lowering his rifle. Victor just stood there, eyes wide and Joshua felt some satisfaction for having stunned the man.

“It took me nearly three years to find you and I am not leaving any time soon,” Joshua lowered his hands, eyes on Victor. “So you’re stuck with me, old man.”

“Why the hell would you come looking for me?” Victor growled, but lowered his shotgun. “And how the hell do I have a child?”

“Well, you see. My mama was a prostitute and you stopped by one night and stuck your pecker up her ass and I popped out some time later. Pretty sure that’s how that works,” Joshua figured it was safe now and dismounted from his horse, shaking out his legs once he was on the ground. He still wasn’t used to all this riding, “And I came looking for you because I had nowhere else to go. Bit of a problem child, or so I’m told.”

“Its better than joining up with someone worse, Victor,” James’s voice was a little shaky but Joshua was sure the man was laughing.

“Shut up, James,” Victor snapped, stepping into Joshua’s space and glaring down at him. “What do you want, boy?”

“To be loved by my long lost father and finally know what it means to be a part of a family,” Joshua gave the man his best puppy dog eyes before breaking out his smile again. “I figured I’ve got sixteen years I owe you. Not a lot of the kids running around the brothel get this chance, figured depending on how it turned out I could make some money off the story. Worse case, you shoot me and I dog you for the rest of your days till paranoia gets the better of you and you accidently kill yourself. Not much worse than that, right?”

“You good with those guns or are  they just for show?” James shoved himself before Victor and Joshua as the younger man noticed something flash in the older man’s eyes, something dangerous.

“I’m decent with them, why?” Joshua crossed his arms, eyeing the two cautiously.

“Aw, hell no, Jimmy,” Victor snapped, crossing his arms as well and glaring at his brother.

“Yes, Vic. You want to spend time with this clown here? We’ve pissed off some unsavory types and we know they’re coming. You do well against them and we’ll think about letting you stay around for a while,” James turned to Joshua, raising an eyebrow. “You in?”

Joshua’s smile turned just a little feral as he answered, “Its been a while since I killed anyone. When do we start?”

James looked between the two before he finally started laughing, amazed at how similar the two were, “Good God, he is your son!”

Victor glared at the boy, who looked too happy about this whole situation, but Joshua could tell the man was realizing that there was no way he could get rid of him now. Joshua hadn’t planned on staying around them for long, but hell, maybe he could get something more out of this than a good laugh after all.


	8. Family Reunion: Part 2

2007

_“He’s my father,” Joshua said slowly, eyes never leaving Logan’s. “And you’re my uncle.”_

The silence that followed that statement was deafening. Joshua looked between the people in the room before letting his eyes fall back on Logan. They man’s eyes were wide and his nostrils were flared. It was a familiar look, but on the wrong man. It was a look that Victor always wore, not Logan. Logan was always the calmer of the two.

“What year is it?” Joshua finally broke the silence, figuring that maybe the date would help figure out what was going on.

“Its 2007,” Charles spoke gently while the other three, probably mutants, stayed tense. “You’re in a government facility we just recently discovered. We were looking for information on Logan’s background at another site and that site led us to here.”

“Wait, 2007?” Joshua felt like the breath had been forced out of his lungs. “We…that can’t be right.”

The last thing he remembered was being tied down under the watchful eyes of Stryker and being knocked out. Victor had been there, had been blackmailed to do something. But what? Joshua didn’t know, but he had a very bad feeling it had something to do with Logan’s memory issues. Without even thinking, Joshua stood, eyes not really focusing on anything, his eyes coming in harsh gasps as he struggled to remember anything more. There were memories of pain and voices, but nothing more.

“Charles, that might have been the wrong thing to say,” Logan was speaking, but it sounded like it was coming from a distance. Joshua was panicking, which was absurd but it was still happening.

“I’m realizing that, Logan, thank you,” Charles sounded annoyed, but calm. “Mr…..Creed, I apologize for the surprise, but are you alright?”

The pain went on and on and never ended. He remembered that, remembered waking up briefly and hearing someone screaming. He remembered feeling like he was on fire again, a feeling he absolutely hated more than anything else. They had needed to know if it would work, if they could do…something

“Holy shit.”

“His skin.”

“Have you ever seen anything like that?”

“Those blades.”

“Kid?” Logan’s voice was suddenly very close, a hand pressing gently against his shoulder but it didn’t feel right. Joshua looked down, seeing the familiar hand covering his shoulder, then following his arm down to where his skin should be but instead….

“Jesus wept,” Joshua breathed out. His skin now had the appearance of diamonds, sparkling in the dim light of the room. And it out of the top of his wrist…a blade, about a foot long and narrow. He had blades in his arms.

“You….have armored skin? And blades in your arms?” the woman with the red hair asked gently, eyes wide revealing her shock.

“No, I don’t. I didn’t, I mean I do now but I didn’t before but now I do,” Joshua found himself leaning back against the bed he had been on, starring at his hand, his other coming up to touch his skin gingerly. It felt….weird. He brushed his hand carefully against the blades, finding them very sharp and cool under his fingers.

“Before….what?” Charles leaned forward in his chair, looking thoughtful.

“Where’s Victor?” Joshua shook his head, closing his eyes and just focusing on breathing. He wasn’t sure on before what, but right now h needed to focus on one thing at a time. Find Victor and then he could panic. As he felt his heart rate getting under control, he felt his skin almost…shift and when he opened his eyes, his skin was back to normal. With a little more effort and the blades were retracting back into his arms.

“Last we spotted him, he was running with an old friend down south,” Charles glanced at the others before focusing on Joshua again. “We can take you to him, if you would like?”

“You trust them?” Joshua glanced at Logan, waiting. Even if Logan didn’t remember him, Joshua would still defer to his judgement. These people were better at navigating the future than he would be on his own, but he still needed Logan’s approval of them.

“Should I not? They’re good people,” Logan crossed his arms, shoulders tense.

“You can take me to Victor, but Logan comes with,” Joshua kept his eyes on his uncle, taking a good look at him now that his eyes were a hundred percent. There were wrinkles around his eyes now, something that he had never seen on either his father or his uncle before. 30 years had passed since he last remembered…30 years.

“Hell no,” Logan snapped, shifting away from Joshua. “He’ll just try to kill me again!”

“If he does, I will personally put a bullet in him for you. I’ve done it before, I will do it again,” Joshua straightened up, looking around the room thoughtfully. “We might have to make a pit stop, though.”

“You can drop me at the school,” Logan snapped, arms once again crossed, flat out glaring at Joshua. That will not do.

“Look, I am your long lost nephew that for some reason you do not remember. You want answers, I can see that plain as day on your face,” Joshua took a step forward, back into Logan’s space. “Whatever these good folks have been doing to help isn’t working. There is one man who I know of who might have the answers. If you want them, you have to come with.”

“You think its that easy? We just find where Creed is and ask him nicely as to why he’s been trying to kill me for over 20 years?” Logan snarled. He seemed almost feral, something Joshua did not associate with his uncle at all. He really needed to fix this, fast, before he ended up being the voice of reason for the rest of his life.

“No, I don’t think it will be,” Joshua let a smile slip onto his face, one he knew was similar to one Victor always wore when he was fighting. “But what’s the fun in things being easy?”


	9. Family Reunion: Part 3

2007

They’d made two pit stops before they arrived at the compound Victor was supposedly staying at. According to Jean, the red haired telepath, the first place they’d stopped at was a school for young mutants to learn how to control their powers and still function properly in society. Joshua had laughed for a full minute before he realized she was being serious. They had an actual school filled with mutant children. Joshua saw so many things wrong with that. Ororo, the weather witch, had stayed back at the school while a girl named Kitty and a boy named Bobby had gotten on. Another girl, Rogue, had been waiting on their secret space craft when they had exited the facility, which was somewhere deep in the Rockie Mountains according to Jean. So in total, there was Jean, Charles, Kitty, Bobby, Rogue and Logan going on this little trip with Joshua. How fun was that?

The next stop had been at the storage locker Joshua had for his gear. He didn’t let anyone come with and spent over an hour getting from the airport to his stash just to back track and make sure no one followed. Once he got there, he immediately started messing with his skin, seeing what all he could do with it. It didn’t just turn into diamonds, it seemed. If he focused enough, he was able to cycle through a few different materials. With training, he might be able to even control specific limbs. He did not try to get the blades to pop out. That was something he didn’t want to deal with right now.

He was actively ignoring the elephant in the room that revolved around the facility he had been found in. He didn’t have this power before his capture and now he had it. Some where in the 30 years he’d been out, someone had messed with him. Joshua just hoped that had all they had messed with.

Over the years he’d lived on this planet, he’d adapted his outfits to fit the current fashions. While the X-Men, as they called themselves, might be comfortable running around in spandex, which he had mocked Logan about for a solid ten minutes, he was not. Jeans seemed to be still in style and vests so he was at least going to look somewhat normal. Or at least, as much as a man can when he has two Colt M1911s on his hips and another one in a shoulder holster under his coat. He hoped trench coats were still a thing, they made it easier to hide weapons. His brown leather coat was new, something he’d picked up in the 60s, but he’d had something similar when he was riding with the Seven.

He stuck a knife in each boot, combat boots he’d gotten into the habit of wearing after he started fighting in actual wars, and one in the knife holster he kept on the opposite side of the gun holster. To finish off his ensemble, he pulled his hat low over his head, finally feeling comfortable with himself since he’d woken up. Hopefully all of this gear, stuff both Logan and Victor had seen him wear over the years, would help both recognize him. He didn’t want to think about what might be wrong if Victor was attacking his own brother and Logan didn’t remember him.

Scott, bless his boyscout heart, looked actually afraid when Joshua sauntered back onboard their spaceship. It had to be a spaceship, there was no way this futuristic hunk of metal was anything but. Joshua had just flopped down into his seat, strapped back in and looked expectantly at Jean and Charles, who were flying the ship.

“So, you and Victor. What’s it like, him as your father?” Bobby broke the silence once they were airborne. Seems the kiddies had been updated on the whole secret mission to the secret compound on a secret island. His life had become a bond movie and he’d slept through most of it.

“I’m sure just like any father son relationship, which means none of your business,” Joshua pulled his hat down lower on his face, watching Logan out of the corner of his eye. The man was looking at him, confused but nothing seemed to be registering yet.

“Jean said you had been frozen for 30 years. How are you alive?” Kitty leaned forward, looking excited. “You can heal, too? As well as diamond skin and the blades?”

“Let’s play a game, shall we? You two shut up and I don’t shoot you,” Joshua let his right hand come to rest on his belt. Bobby and Kitty leaned back, glancing at each other, but stayed silent.

The flight was tense but not horrible. Logan still hated to fly, but Joshua remembered the tricks from before and didn’t mind using them when he saw Logan getting agitated. Card tricks had entertained him when it wasn’t too bad so he pulled out his deck and started flipping through the cards. Logan had jerked in surprise and that was when he found out they all knew of a guy called Gambit, who used his cards to blow people up. Well, he was going to have to meet this Gambit and show him who the real card master was.

When the cards just seemed to make the tension worse, he went with plan B and pulled out one of his special cigarettes. He’d lit it, too a pull and passed it to Logan, who looked surprised before taking it cautiously. Scott had started going off about how horrible cigarettes were for your health and how you weren’t actually allowed to have them on the plane. Joshua just laughed and took another pull, deciding not to mention what made these so special. Logan was actually relaxing, so it didn’t matter what Glasses said anyways.

Rogue was the one who gave a little background on the compound as they started their decent hours later. It had been set up by a man names Erik Lehnsherr in the 80s after he was cleared from supposedly killing a president. Joshua didn’t really care about that, what he did care about was that it was a place adult mutants could go and either get a second chance to re-enter society after mastering their powers or to live outside of the society that had shunned them in the first place. Depending on the mutation, Joshua could see how a place like that would be important.

Logan and Charles were the first two off, followed closely by Jean and Scott. Rogue hung back with Joshua as he let Bobby and Kitty off before him, scanning the courtyard they had landed in. A handful of people were waiting for them, all dressed in work clothes or casual wear. Victor stood out, as he always did, by his size and the now shoulder length hair he was sporting. His face was set in a snarl as another man, around the same age as Charles, held him back with an arm across his chest.

Joshua missed whatever words were traded, but he did not miss Logan and Victor throwing themselves at each other or the metal claws Logan was now sporting. Holy shit, what had happened?

Everyone else was running or holding others back, keeping anyone from joining the fray but no one was looking at Joshua. Thankfully, breaking up fights between the two were a common thing for him, so Joshua slipped past the X-Men, pulling his two Colts from their hip holsters and aiming them at his Uncle and Father. Before he could pull the trigger, though, the guns were being pulled out his hands and into the those of the older man that had been holding Victor back earlier. Joshua glared at him as he shrugged his coat off, not even thinking of reaching for his back up. The guy had telekinesis or something. He’d go for those as well.

He dropped the shoulder holster as he charged forward, slamming his body into the two that were grappling in the middle of the improvised fighting ring. The silence that followed told Joshua no one had ever done that before. The three of them ended up sprawled on the ground, Logan looking at him like he had sprouted a second head and Victor looking at him like he’d just seen a ghost. Which…it had been at most 30 years.

“As much fun as it is seeing you two ripping each other apart, again, can we skip the blood and gore part of this reunion and go right to the part where we drink?” Joshua sat up, giving his best shit eating grin to the two of them.

“You’re dead,” Victor breathed out, slowly standing. Logan stayed down, claws still out but just watching the two.

“No, I wasn’t,” Joshua stood as well, hands out at his side. “Stryker had me, remember? Please tell me you don’t have amnesia, too.”

“Amnesia?” Victor’s frown got deeper as Logan slowly stood as well.

“The kid says we’re related,” Logan added unhelpfully, his claws finally retracting. “Which I told him was bullshit.”

“He blew up the facility you were at. I saw you there, drugged up and strapped to a table. The whole place blew up and you didn’t come back,” Victor took a step forward before freezing, looking Joshua over hard. “You can’t be real.”

“Look, its been a really weird day already,” Joshua let his hands fall down. “Those asscakes over there woke me up, told me it was 30 years in the future, Logan doesn’t remember me, I’ve got some freaky new powers and now I find out you thought I was dead. Oh, and they have a spaceship so if my life right now isn’t some weird movie, please wake me up now.”

“New powers? Is this some sort of dream?” Victor turned away from Joshua, even though it looked like it hurt him and focused on Charles. “What are you doing, Xavier? How’d you find out about Josh?”

“He’s telling the truth, Victor, I promise. Jean and I have nothing to do with this,” Charles said gently as the man with Joshua’s guns shifted closer to the chair-bound man.

“You two are related and you never told us?” the man, his voice as annoyingly calm as Charles’s, looked between the three men before them. “Why did you never tell us?”

“Because he killed my boy! And now…what the hell is going on?” Victor rounded on Logan, his claws back out.

“Hello, right here! I would like to know that, too,” Joshua took a few steps forward so he was between Victor and Logan. “But no stabbing anymore. Hugs?”

“Why would I kill my nephew, if I had one?” Logan sounded bewildered and a little horrified from behind Joshua as he turned to face Victor. “A little mouthy, sure, but he’s family.”

“Didn’t seem to matter when Stryker got involved,” Victor snarled. “You knew what he had been doing to Josh and you still let him get away. And then you kill Josh. That’s what happened and that’s all you’re going to get. Now, I know my boy is dead, so what the hell are you?”

“I am Joshua Faraday, your son, you asshole,” Joshua held his hands out in front of him as Victor took a step forward. “I found you and Logan when I was sixteen hiding out in a cabin in upstate New York. I have a healing factor like you and Logan, and you two found out when some people you pissed off attacked and I took a bullet to multiple limbs and lived. In 1977, a man named Stryker captured me to use against you as blackmail for something, which I assume now involves Logan. You can actually control the growth of those nails, so I don’t see the point of keeping them out and if you ruin this shirt I will put a bullet between your eyes and not regret it.”

“Holy shit,” Victor’s arms dropped down, eyes wide as he really looked at Joshua. “How…what?”

“I don’t know, I was frozen for 30 years,” Joshua shrugged and went to drop his arms, but something bit into the back of his hands. He looked down to see the metal blades protruding out of his arms, “Oh, sweet Mother Hubbard.”

 “Josh?” Victor took a caustious step forward and Joshua was glad to see his nails were back to normal length.

“Those are new and I think I’m panicking right now. I mean, cool, metal blades in my arms. Which are new. And the whole skin changing thing, also new. So cool. I always wanted cool powers, because not dying wasn’t bad enough,” Joshua was babbling. That was bad. This whole thing was bad, “Holy shit, ok, shit, I can, shit shit shitty shit shit. Sorry, I’m calm, you’re calm, we’re all calm. I’ll freak out later. Focus.”

Some in the back whispered, “He swears more than Logan and Victor,” as Victor swept forward, wrapping his large frame around Joshua and holding him tightly.

“I got you, its ok. We’ll figure this out,” Victor pressed his head against Joshua’s, breathing in deeply. Joshua knew the man was scenting him, always more animal than man and he found it was comforting to him, even surrounded by strangers.

“I’m fine, I said I was fine,” Joshua wrapped his arms around Victor anyway, pressing his face into his father’s shoulder. “Just woke up wrong, is all. With new powers. I sparkle now, by the way. And the blades. But hey, I fit in now, sharp blades out of hands.”

“I thought you were dead, you stupid child,” Victor pulled away, holding Joshua a little ways away so he could really look at him. Victor’s face was more open than Joshua had ever seen it, concern and fondness clearly written in the lines around his eyes and mouth, “I thought you were dead and I thought Logan killed you.”

“Yeah, about that. Why?” Joshua didn’t pull any farther away, but he did look at Logan, who was standing tensely not too far away. The other people gathered were listening intently, obviously rude people if Joshua had ever met any.

“Stryker used you to get me to turn on Jimmy,” Victor finally looked at his brother, shame starting to show on his face. “There was a woman working for him, Silverfox. He’d sent her to befriend your uncle.”

“Kayla Silverfox?” Joshua felt his blood run cold. “Brunette? Mind-control?”

“Yeah?” Victor focused back on Joshua.

“She and I were dating, for a bit there. Before everything,” Joshua looked down at the ground. “She’s how they got me.”

“That bitch,” Logan snapped and everyone looked at him. He looked alarmed at his own words, but continued on, “She used both of us, ruined our family, I assume?”

“Stryker has a way of finding a person’s weakness. Kayla’s was her sister. Stryker collected mutants like it was going out of style, trying to make the ultimate human weapon. It was called Project X,” Victor took a step towards Logan, but stopped, glancing between Joshua and his brother. “She had diamond skin. Kayla’s sister did. She was young, barely 15 I think, but Stryker used the fear around mutants to get his way. He used Kayla to get Logan to join up, get adamantium bound to his limbs. They wanted to make sure it would work. There was a man we knew, Wade, who they used as their end goal. Figured out how to get mutants to take on more powers. They obviously used Josh to figure out if the blades that Wade had would work. Possibly also used you to make sure the healing factor wouldn’t mess with adding other powers.”

“That’s…bad,” Joshua breathed out, feeling a little light headed. “Like, really bad. Like, so terrible.”

“There were complications and we,” Victor pointed between himself and Logan. “Ended up fighting it out with Wade at the Three Mile facility. I knew you were there, Stryker had shown me you earlier to keep me in line, said I had to help Wade kill Logan, but it had gone too far. I knew between me and Logan, we could get you out. We got separated when Wade fell into the nuclear reactor. When the dust settled, the building that had been holding the frozen mutants was nothing but a hole in the ground and Logan was gone,” Victor looked down at the ground. “I dug into whatever I could find, surveliance, reports, you name it. And you didn’t come back, so I…my brain jumped to conclusions and I let my anger get the better of me, it seems. Logan was always so cold when we ran into each other, it just kept proving what I thought.”

“They must have moved me, after they showed you me,” Joshua spoke softly, stunned by what he was hearing. “But…Logan’s memories?”

“We can figure that out another day,” Charles broke into their little bubble drawing everyone’s attention to him. “You’ve had a long day, Joshua, and so have the rest of us for that matter. We’ll figure things out after some sleep.”

Joshua looked at Victor, who nodded his head slowly, “Erik, give my boy his guns back please.”

“I don’t like guns here, Victor,” the man, Erik, sighed but levitated the guns back to Joshua. “Welcome to the Compound, Mr. Faraday.”

Victor wrapped his arm back around Joshua as the others dispersed, Logan moving back over by the X-Men, looking shaken. Joshua just closed his eyes, breathing deeply. Maybe he’d wake up and this was just a bad dream.

When he opened his eyes, Victor was still there, looking just as sad as Joshua felt.


	10. One Short of a Full Set

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 1 of the great Magnificent Seven reunion.

2017

Reading the dossiers Xavier had given him had brought back Rose Creek in all of its glory. What little was known on it, that is. None of them had talked to anyone about it and what the government had was pieced together from what little they had gotten out of the citizens of Rose Creek. By the time anyone had shown up, almost everything was repaired and Josh knew they had cleared out well before any government types had shown up. Well, by cleared out he meant they had moved to Emma’s farm house, on the edge of the valley after Victor and Logan had shown up.

What the government had was the first supposed team up of mutants in the history of the United States. Which could not be true but Josh figured there was already enough shit in the water that is the government pond that he was not going to fight this little detail. At least, not at the moment. He had more important things to worry about for the time being, but once he was alone in this facility with a computer, he had a little present from the X-Men for these asswipes.

Josh hadn’t been able to say no, even before he had opened the files. These were his friends, men he had known and worked with for years. Men he had buried himself and mourned for years. He wasn’t going to let the government, the people who had tortured him for years, control them any longer.

According to the files, some scientist had wanted to see if he could recreate mutants from the past through cloning and had accidentally found out how to reanimate corpses. It seemed memories were spotty at best, so they had made up backgrounds on all of them men they had found. They were still searching for Joshua Faraday, his grave site still a mystery. They wanted the whole ground for whatever plans they had, but for now were settling for what they had. Seeing as they didn’t have any documentation on him having a power, Josh figured they weren’t looking for him too hard.

When the Six had mentioned the memories of their old lives, the good doctors working with them had said they were dreams and nothing more. Possibly from the machine that had given them their powers. Because obviously these men weren’t born mutants. Yeah, Josh was looking forward to screwing this whole plan up majorly.

For all the big wigs here knew, he was Joshua Creed, member of the X-Men and a former lawyer turned teacher after an accident had given him his powers. He had an unnatural affinity to weapons and his skin also seemed to turn to whatever element he wanted it to be. They had recordings showing him with diamond skin, metal skin and the one time he had made himself look like a tree. Josh wasn’t about to tell them how incomplete their files were, not if it meant he’d have the upper hand when it came to getting his people out.

He was currently waiting in a conference room for the rest of the group to show. The agent who had escorted him when the jet had dropped him off was waiting by the door, glaring at him. Josh didn’t care, looking over the files he’d brought with to help keep his persona alive. He’d been chosen by Charles because he was good at looking at the big picture and was unbiased, or so the government assumed.

The glaring also probably had something to do with his attire. He’d acquired his own X-Men suit a few years ago and figured he should wear it here to make it very clear what his purpose was. It was made out of a material the X-Men had made, heavy duty but very flexible to a mutants abilities. The pants were similar to cargo pants and his top had a thing layer of armor added in, plus his weapons harness over top. His gun belt, with his Colts in place, were snug on his hip, the X buckle clearly seen holding it in place. Over the top he wore his personal trench coat, a gift from Charles after he had officially joined the X-Men. To finish it all off and to remind people why his codename was Cowboy was his newest hat. A present from Jean at his last birthday. How she found out about it, he still didn’t know but it was more durable than the hats he’d worn in the past.

All in all, he looked a lot like a modern version of his former cowboy self. He’d taken to wearing it because it was comfortable to be in familiar attire, but also because compared to his every day garb he ware when he got into trouble, the X-men stuff actually had armor built in. Not that he minded getting shot, he just hated having to buy new stuff all the time and it was a bitch to keep healing over and over again. After 150 years of getting shot, he was really tired of the whole healing process.

This attire was also close enough to what he used to wear that it might budge something loose in the others’ minds. It would make his job so much easier if they actually remembered their old lives. Or more difficult, depending on how they reacted. For now, he could only hope that his cover was tight enough that he didn’t end up a permanent guest of the government again.

Finally, the door by his silent sentry opened, and more men filed in. First was the lawyer Josh had been dealing with over the past few days. George Barker wasn’t any happier about the situation than Josh, knowing that the government was in a very precarious situation. Once this project became public, which it would, they would have hell to pay for. As each story on the testing of mutants and using them as weapons from any government had hit the papers, more and more people had become very vocal about their outrage. When they found out that the U.S. government had brought mutants back to life and had been using them to ruin suicidal missions? The backlash would be swift and violent. Which was why Josh was here, to discuss the release of the mutants into the care of the X-Men until the press died down. At least, that’s what they were offering up, instead of suing the U.S. government of any number of charges from illegally testing mutants without their consent to whatever Josh wanted to throw on the table. He had enough to clear out quite a few offices on Capitol Hill, including the president.

Barker headed straight for him, breaking away from the rest of his group as Josh stood. The next to enter the room behind him was General Mark Gibbon, who had taken over the project after the death of its founder, a familiar face to all involved, Colonel William Stryker, in 2003. At that point, Project Rose Creek had only been in its early stages. It took them another ten years to actually resurrect the chosen mutants. And General Gibbon had been at the helm the entire time. He was under investigation, secretly, but seeing as it was by the very organizations that had been paying him, it wasn’t going anywhere. Josh’s first goal once this went public was to get the man sacked.

“Let’s get this over with,” Gibbon snarled, moving to sit at the head of the table. The next few people, six to be exact, all took up places against the wall behind Gibbon. Josh had prepared himself for this, so even though he was panicking inside at seeing his friends again, on the outside he was calm, cool and collected.

“Thank you for inviting me here, General Gibbon,” Josh stayed formal, even under the glare from Gibbon and the ice cold stares for the Six. “And thank you for bringing these gentlemen with you, as I suggested. We wouldn’t want to further infringe on their rights, no would we?”

“That’s not why I brought them, Mr. Creed,” Gibbon smiled coldly as Barker sighed.

“We’ve been over this, General. These men are no longer on active duty, not until a formal hearing can be held, as well as testing to make sure they are in full control of themselves,” Barker gestured at Josh’s chair as he took a seat down one from where Josh had been seated.

“These men are here to remind you X-Men that you aren’t the only mutant team out there anymore, freak,” Gibbon snarled. Josh glanced at the Six, who were flanked by a few more guards. He took notice of the metal bands on their wrists and the wary looks in their eyes.

“I’ll need access to all of your footage of the experiments done on these men as well as the footage from their free time,” Josh pulled his notebook close, looking over the notes he had jotted down on the flight here. “I will need copies of all of your paperwork and access to these men in a neutral location without any of your men there. I will also need to interview all of the scientists involved in Project Rose Creek.”

“Anything else? Maybe the moon while we’re at it?” Gibbon snarked. “Not happening. These men stay with me. You bring this to the press or anyone else and I’ll destroy you.”

“Right, of course. I’ll look forward to it,” Josh started gathering up his papers. “Mr. Barker, I’ll be seeing you in court, then.”

“No, you won’t. Unless you’d like assistance on your case,” Barker shook his head as Gibbon growled. “General, you are not going to win this. These negotiations are the only way you get out of this without being locked up in the cells you made. So how about you cool your jets.”

“I’ve listened to your whining long enough, Barker. I didn’t set this up for negotiations,” Gibbons waved a hand and the Six moved away from the wall. “I set it up to complete my set. You can’t have the Magnificent Seven if you only have six of the members.”


	11. Coming Together

1867

They came in the middle of the night, the men that were hunting James and Victor. It was around two weeks since Joshua had showed up and other than being assigned chores to do during the day, he had very little to do. In his free time, then, he’d taken back up on working on his trick riding. He wanted to practice shooting, but he only had so many bullets at the moment and it didn’t seem like the other two would be sharing any time soon. Victor barely spared a glance his way when he was out in the yard with his mare, messing around. James actually stopped and watched, offering up some advice before moving on.

The claws and nails were something he hadn’t been allowed to see till early into the second week there, while James and Victor were fighting one morning in the barn. For practice, of course, but Joshua didn’t care as he dropped the bucket he had been carrying to milk the cows with. The clang had drawn their attention and they had tried to explain it away, but Joshua hadn’t let them finish, “You have claws! That is amazing!”

“Don’t tell anyone, pup,” Victor had snarled, nails sharp as he pointed one at Joshua.

Joshua had held up his hands in surrender, eyes on the nails, “Still amazing.”

They hadn’t really talked about the mutations after that, Victor going out of his way to avoid Joshua even more than before. So when the men, whom James had said they had a quarrel with from back when they fought in the war, had shown up, it had been Joshua, all alone, who had faced them first. James and Victor were in the house, settling down for the night. Joshua had been given a cot in the corner of the main room and he would settle down later, but for now he was making sure all the animals were settled in for the night.

He was crossing the yard, lantern swinging unlit in his hand as he enjoyed a clear night. The moon was almost full, so he really didn’t need the lantern with the cloudless sky and all. It was just starting to get cold at night, summer coming to an end and fall right around the corner. He would be the first to admit his guard was down, relaxed under the wonderful conditions. But even with his guard down, the men didn’t get a complete jump on him. One of the idiots stepped on a branch as they made their way into the yard. Everyone froze, Joshua at the edge of the porch, the men at the edge of the yard. His guns were on his hips, at least, but they were still in their holsters, while the men had theirs out. He did the one thing he could think of.

He threw the lantern as he dashed for the front door, knowing that shattering glass would rouse his father and uncle at least. The action got him a second to run before they started shooting. Joshua felt one slice through his arm, but he ignored it. He was used to flesh wounds by know, knew it would heal soon enough. He threw himself at the door, hands over his head, and rolled into the main room. He kicked the door shut as he pulled his pistols, hearing footsteps rushing into the room. The gunshots outside had stopped as they probably realized they were shooting at nothing. He looked up from his place on his back to see James and Victor crouched low in their doorways, eyes wide.

“We have some unwanted visitors,” Joshua got out, cocking both pistols in one motion. “Do we have a plan?”

“Jimmy, sneak out back through your window. See if you can get behind them. The pup and I will cover the front, keep their attention on us. Once you’re in position, start taking them out. We’ll count the screams as the signal,” Victor hissed, checked his shotgun over. James pulled his claws in, nodding before he slipped back into his room. Victor’s eyes came up, looking Joshua over and clearly spotting the blood, “You ok, kid?”

“Flesh wound. I’ll patch it later,” Joshua sat up, blocking Victor’s view of his arm. “You two need a distraction?”

“We’ll wait for Jimmy to get into position. We’ll take shots out the windows to keep their attention,” Victor rolled his shoulders, hackles up.

“That won’t be enough. I go out, draw their attention and you and James can rush them from two sides. It’s a better chance of you two getting out of here in one piece,” Joshua pulled his feet under him and got into a crouch. “You’re better with your claws than with that gun.”

“You’re going to get yourself shot,” Victor snapped, starting to move towards Joshua. Time to move, it would seem.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Joshua gave a sloppy salute with his right hand, pistol and all, before running for the door. He heard Victor snarl behind him, but he was already pulling the door open and throwing himself across the porch, firing off a couple shots to cover himself, tracking the men as he went. He counted eight of them, all spread throughout the yard, moving in on the house. He didn’t see James, which is good at least, but everyone was now looking at him.

Just off the front of the porch was the main well for the property, so Joshua had thrown himself towards it. He just had planned falling a little short and pulling off some really amazing moves to get behind it. He did not count on throwing himself hard enough that he hit the well instead. It seemed in his adrenaline fueled dash away from Victor and into the line of fire, he’d gotten a little too enthusiastic. Thankfully, this was not the first time he’d crashed into things in the middle of a fight.

Joshua fired off a few more shots, not really able to aim as his vision greyed out from the impact of his head meeting stone. He could feel bruises forming on his shoulders, but he ignored them as he rolled, avoiding the shots being fired at him. He half twisted, half crawled his way behind the well, not as graceful as he was going for, but at least he was out of the line of fire.

He reached down to his belt, planning on reloading his pistols, when he fingers brushed against something sticky. He looked down, eyes going wide in horror as he took in the holes cutting through his middle. One was right through his stomach, blood flowing and staining his shirt. The other one was a little higher and to the left, looking like the bullet had clipped the bottom of his ribs.

The pain came a second later, ripping through him as the realization sunk in. He struggled to breath, hands shaking as they pressed against the wounds. He was panicking, he knew that. He would be fine in an hour or so, once the wounds healed enough so that he could move around. Right now, though, it was terrifying. He’d never lost this much blood before, hadn’t taken such serious injuries before. He didn’t know if his healing would save him this time. And after such a short time with these men…

Victor and James.

The thought was like a bucket of ice water to his system, drawing him back to the present. He could hear yells from the other side of the well, too many still for his father and uncle to be safe. He needed to cover them, could at least do this, protect them even if this was the end.

He loaded only one pistol, his other abandoned at his side as he struggled to load just the one. Six bullets covered in blood would have to do. He leaned around the edge of the well, pistol in his right hand as he got a good look for the battle still being fought. It looked like only three men were still standing, but they were holding their own pretty well against Victor and James. One man was back a ways, reloading his rifle from where he knelt, glancing up every so often. The other two was using swords and knives, evenly matched with Victor and James in hand to hand. Once the man with the gun was reloaded, it would be an unfair fight. At least, that’s what they were thinking.

Josh leveled his pistol and took careful aim, bracing his left shoulder against the well for stability. He cocked the pistol, breathed and fired. One shot through the gunman’s head, dropping him immediately. Joshua cocked the pistol again and fired. One bullet, through the leg of the man fighting Victor, making him lose his balance so Victor could rip out his throat. The third man saw his companion fall and faltered, giving James the opening he needed to stab his claws through the man’s chest. Joshua let himself fall back against the well, breathing hard as he dropped the pistol and pressed his hands to his stomach.  

He heard heavy steps rushing towards him as he let his eyes slip close, forcing himself to breathe through the pain. He heard the sharp gasp from somewhere above him and felt the air shift as someone moved next to him. A hand pressed against his shoulder as another pressed against his hands over his wounds.

“Pup? Joshua?” Victor’s voice, shaking for the first time since Joshua had met him, was right by his head and he forced his eyes open. Victor was kneeling in front of him, eyes filled with worry and…fear. Joshua forced a weak smile, trying to hide the fact he was in a lot of pain.

“Told you I was good with my guns,” Joshua’s voice sounded breathy to him.

“James, he’s bleeding bad,” Victor kept his eyes on Joshua, but his voice was pitched towards his brother. “Get the medical supplies.”

“Never bled this much before,” Joshua tried to laugh, but it came out more as a sob. He let his eyes slip close, breathing through his nose, “Normally through the muscle or a leg. This is new.”

“Hey, keep those eyes open, Joshua,” Victor tapped at his face, but he sounded far away. “Goddamnit, Joshua. You stay with me!”

Joshua heard his father say something else, but it was too far away to make out. The darkness took the pain away. He could ask later what the man had said. He just wanted the pain to go away.

#

Joshua came to slowly, soft voices filtering in as he rose out of the darkness to wakefulness. Which was very unpleasant once his middle let itself be known. It hurt, but less than before. It was almost like his stomach was too squishy or something. It was hard to explain, but he didn’t feel like he was panicking anymore, which was very good. He forced himself to focus on what was around him, trying to get a feel of his location. He was lying on something comfortable and was covered by a very soft blanket. There were bandages wrapped lightly around his middle, which was where the pain was radiating from.

It came back in a rush, as memories always did when he woke up. The men attacking in the night, making himself the target to protect Victor and James, getting shot in the stomach, Victor looking worried as he knelt over Joshua. He forced himself to fully wake up, knowing that the other two would be worried and maybe a little hostile. They had been honest with him about their abilities and he hadn’t said a word.

Forcing his eyes open, he found himself looking up at Victor, the man’s face pinched with worry. He was sitting in a chair placed by Joshua’s cot, which had been moved so it was closer to the fireplace. The blanket had to be someone else’s because his was scratchy, one of his traveling blankets.

“Joshua,” Victor breathed out, pressing a hand against Joshua’s shoulder gently, a preemptive gesture to keep Joshua from trying to sit up.

“My stomach feels squishy,” Joshua said, in way of greeting the older man. “That’s never happened before.”

“You have a healing factor,” Victor looked down, eyes sad. It was almost like he was disappointed.

“Ah, yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you two, but…” Joshua shrugged weakly, glancing past Victor to see where James was. The other man was standing in the kitchen, looking at whatever he was cooking intently.

“People like to find your limits for you,” Victor nodded sadly. “James and I have one as well. Seems it runs in the family. Lucky you.”

“You don’t think so,” Joshua frowned, confused for the first time in a long time. “I’m not dead, though.”

“You didn’t know that, when you jumped in front of those men,” Victor snapped, then ran a hand over his face when Joshua flinched. “I’m sorry, I have a temper. Ask James. What you did was stupid and reckless.”

“I do that all the time,” Joshua forced a smile and Victor just looked sadder.

“You know we fought in the war,” Victor removed his hand from Joshua’s shoulder, pressing his hands together in his lap.

“That’s what I gathered, tracking you two down,” Joshua nodded slowly. “Why?”

Victor glanced back at James, who was now looking at both of them sadly. He nodded at Victor and moved the pot off the stove. He made his way over, coming to stand behind his brother, resting his hands on the back of Victor’s chair. Both looked like they were struggling with something and that was starting to scare Joshua.

“Look, I know some really horrible stuff went down during the war and I know you two fought for the Union. It was crazy, but that’s not going to make me leave,” Joshua forced himself to sit up, hesitating for a second before reaching out with one hand and pressing it against Victor’s clasped hands.

“Its not that simple,” James sighed, shoulders dropping in defeat. “Like Victor said, we both have the healing factor and yours seems just as strong as ours. Which is the problem.”

“How is it a problem?” Joshua looked between the two. Victor was looking down at their hands, eyes hard, while James closed his eyes for a second before opening them and meeting Joshua’s eyes sadly.

“Victor took a bullet through his head, heart and any number of places. I took a cannon ball to my stomach at one point. We died, Joshua, and came back. You almost died,” James stopped, his voice pitching high at the last word. He took a shaky breath and looked away from Joshua. Joshua found himself looking at Victor, for the first time seeing the man’s face completely unguarded. He was scared and anger. Scared for Joshua and angry he couldn’t protect the boy. Joshua took in a sharp breath, his chest suddenly hurting and tears pricking at his eyes. Was this what it was like to have a father?

“We stopped aging around five years ago, as far as we can tell,” Victor’s voice was soft, sad. “We don’t know if that means dying of old age is out or not yet. I…never wanted this for someone else.”

Victor’s voice broke in that last sentence and Joshua couldn’t hold himself back. He pushed himself into Victor’s arms, clinging to his father tightly, pressing his face into the man’s shoulder, “Its not your fault. You couldn’t have known.”

Victor froze for a second, let out a shuddering breath and wrapped his arms around Joshua tightly. Joshua felt a hand press gently against his head and could only assume it was James. It wasn’t their fault this was happening to them, but if all he did from this day forward was make sure they had each other and remembered what that meant, then he could live this life a happy man.

Joshua pressed as close to Victor as he could, feeling tears slipping from his eyes, “You are my father. I wouldn’t want anyone else, not in the whole world.”

He felt something wet run down his neck as Victor pressed his face against his hair, holding on even tighter. They had each other and that was all that mattered.


	12. Falling Apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but it will probably hurt.

1889

Snow was falling lightly as Josh rode into the yard, a tired Jack bearing his rider slowly towards the cabin Victor and Logan were standing near. He looked tired and older than he ever had as his stallion drew to halt not far from his family. His eyes were red and he looked like he had lost a lot of weight. Jack was looking a little thin as well, but Josh had always been good about taking care of his horses, even if he didn’t take care of himself.

The last Logan and Victor had heard from Josh, he and the other six from Rose Creek were heading South, towards Mexico. The West was starting to tame itself, but there were still pockets that needed men like the Magnificent Seven. No one disputed them, not for some time. Josh was happy, as far as they could tell, riding with men he trusted and one he loved.

Logan and Victor had had their fair share of love and romance over the years, but Josh had stuck to paying for his companions instead of seeking something steady. The fact that he had not only allowed Vasquez into his bed but also into his heart had been a relief to the older men. Even if they knew deep down that it would eventually end in pain for all parties. It seemed that time had finally come.

Victor moved forward first, moving to stand by Josh’s side and resting a hand on the younger man’s leg, looking up at him with a carefully schooled face. Josh’s face, this close, was ashen and had a decent beard growing. Josh wasn’t the best about keeping his facial hair trimmed, but he did take pride in keeping in short and manageable. This was getting long. Something had happened. But they already knew that.

They had received the telegraph a week ago, Josh only saying he was coming home and coming alone. After ten years of riding as a member of the Magnificent Seven, Josh was coming home all by himself. They’d housed the other members from time to time, mainly Vasquez since refused to let Josh go anywhere by himself. Him not being by Josh’s side was a bad time.

“Let’s get you inside, pup,” Victor squeeze Josh’s leg before reaching up and wrapping his arm around his son’s middle. He had a good idea what had happened, but would wait for Josh to tell him for sure before making any plans. For now, he would take care of his son, as he always did.

Josh came willingly, halfway down realizing what was happening and feebly helping to get himself down onto the ground. He didn’t pull away from his father, though, and allowed Victor to lead him inside. Logan passed them, giving Josh’s shoulder a squeeze before moving to take care of Jack. Josh flinched minutely, but both Logan and Victor noticed. They shared a look over his head before Victor led Josh into the house.

The house was decently sized, one story with three bedrooms and a bunkhouse out back. Each of them had their own rooms, but Victor figured he’d be having Josh in his bed tonight, just like after the boy had been hurt when he was younger. He’d snuck into bed with him the first few times and then Victor or Logan just got in the habit of making sure he ended up there before he fell asleep.

Victor led Josh right into his room, forcing him to stop by the bed and pulling his hat off, setting it on the dresser. He then rested his hands of Josh’s shoulders and looked him square in the eyes, “Anyone else showing up?”

“They’re all dead,” Josh’s first words broke Victor’s heart, detached and lifeless, like Josh’s eyes. It meant that Victor’s worst fear had happened and to his son, no less.

“Oh, Josh,” Victor sighed and pulled Josh close, wrapping his arms around his son tightly. Josh tensed for a second before he was wrapping his arms around Victor, his hands gripping Victor’s shirt tightly.

“I buried them, all of them. All on my own. None of them were waking up,” Josh was sobbing, what little control he had gone now that he knew, at least subconsciously, that he was safe.

“It’s alright, Josh, it will be alright. I’m here for you,” Victor rubbed Josh’s back, speaking softly and gently, knowing that if might calm Josh a little.

“I don’t know what to do,” Josh pressed his face into Victor’s shoulder, his body shaking.

“We’ll figure that out together. We won’t let you be alone,” Victor promised, hating that he couldn’t do any more than that.

#

Josh cried himself to sleep. After tucking him in, Victor had stepped out into the main room to speak with Logan real quick before moving back into his room. He’d set himself up on the bed by Josh, who in his sleep had moved to curl up against his father’s leg, looking so young and so lost, even in his sleep. Logan had joined a few minutes later, books and coffee in hand. After distributing his haul, Logan had settled into a chair and the two of them had passed the time just reading, waiting for Josh to wake.

Josh had woken hours later, well into the night. He woke slowly, stretching and looking around the room blearily. His eyes fell on Victor and his father could see his brain putting everything together. Josh rolled onto his back and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes, “Sorry about…all that.”

“Sometimes its good to cry,” Victor reached out and squeezed Josh’s shoulder. “And you more than had a right to.”

“I know…just….”Josh breathed out before lowering his hands, his left hand gripping Victor’s wrist. “I was pretty out of it.”

“They all died, right in front of you. You don’t have to save face around us, Josh,” Victor said softly, eyes never leaving Josh, so he caught Josh’s lip trembling before the younger man ran his free hand over his face, leaving it over his mouth.

“I couldn’t do anything, none of us could. We were settled down for the night and then these men were just there, just shooting. Not even aiming, just shooting,” Josh’s voice trembled and James was suddenly on Josh’s other side, pulling him up into a hug.

“You don’t have to talk about it now, if you don’t want to,” James whispered as he held Josh close. Victor shifted over so he was hugging Josh from behind, making sure Josh knew they were there for him.

“When you want to, we’ll be here,” Victor added, holding his family close. They may never be able to die, but there are other ways to lose someone. He was not losing them, not if he could help it.


	13. Welcome to the Jungle

2008

The one thing that had gotten better, in Josh’s opinion, in the last 30 years was the traveling. The motorcycles had improved, definitely more comfortable to sit on, but Josh really loved all the food places that were now everywhere. Victor was horrified by Josh’s immense love of McDonalds, even after forcing his son to watch multiple videos and read many articles on why it was bad for you. Josh didn’t care, wasn’t like he was going to die from processed food anyway.

Also, the hotels were better. Although the rules about drugs now were insane and Josh could not help but laugh at the new drinking age. He’d gone through Prohibition, he figured these new age kids were just being whiney and the people in charge were trying to forget their younger selves by writing laws that didn’t really affect them. Nothing new there.

Another new thing was the openness of the mutants they were running into. Not all places they stopped liked mutants, but that’s not why Josh wanted to do this road trip. He’d missed out on 30 years of history, he had to catch up. After spending a month in the Compound, learning as much as he could about his new powers and about what had happened from his father and Erik, he was ready to stretch his legs. He had wanted to go see Logan, see how he was doing with this whole thing, but their last talk with him had made Josh change his mind.

Jean and Charles, now that they had a better idea if what all had gone down with the X program, had been able to help Logan remember, but it was slow going. Victor had refused to let is son out of his sight, so he had gone with without too much argument. He was the one who made sure they checked in from time to time with both the Compound and the Institute. Josh hadn’t liked that, years of distrust for secret organizations coupled with the recent trauma of finding out he’d spent 30 years as a secret organization’s lab experiment making him all the more paranoid.

A year later found him a little more relaxed in this new time and finding himself seeing a new side to Victor. 30 years had changed his father, sharping some edges and dulling others. He was much more affectionate towards Josh, which also now included a protective streak a mile wide. Someone got to close to Josh for his liking? Instead of popping out the claws, he’d wrap Josh in a bear hug and practically carry him away. It had been funny the first time, after that not so much.

He’d also met some interesting new mutants, like Wade. Wade was like them, in a way. He was mouthy, had a healing factor and liked killing people. He just was a whole different crazy. Victor had known him years ago and had sworn he and Logan had killed him when they had first met up with Wade. Wade had started in on multiple plot lines and sucky writers and then laughed at Josh for five minutes, only saying sword hands in way of explanation.

Victor hated that Josh and Wade got on like fire and gasoline. He’d spent an hour on the phone with Logan, the two of them griping like old men over the bad influence that Wade would have on Josh. Josh had used that hour to the best of his ability, him and Wade sneaking off. 30 years frozen in a small chamber had nothing to slow him down. And Wade did not have a problem going off and welcoming Josh personally to the new century.

Victor had not looked or talked to Josh for three whole days after he had found them. Wade just kept laughing and Josh had pointed it out it was perfect revenge for all the times he had gone and visited either Logan or Victor and walked in on something unpleasant. Victor hadn’t been willing to leave Josh alone during those three days, not yet comfortable with having Josh out of his sight for too long. So after spending three days of Josh and Wade badgering him, Victor had finally cracked and told them to fuck off.

Wade had gone his own way a few days later, saying that they’d be seeing him soon. Victor hoped not too soon and Josh had just laughed, packing his bags and getting ready to head out as well.

Now, a year after waking up, they were back at the Institute, roaring up the drive on their twin Harleys. Victor was actually relaxed, even though he was entering what he had once considered enemy territory. Josh had his cowboy hat in place, glasses on his eyes and smile wide on his face. He hadn’t actually paid attention to the outside of the Institute the last time he had been here, so actually seeing it left him pretty amazing. Kids went to school here. It was like some posh private school, even though some of the students only lived here and went to one of the local schools.

Students stopped what they were doing, spread out on the grounds, to watch the two men approaching. Josh spotted a few running inside, which he thought was stupid. Between Charles, Jean and whatever security they had here, the whole campus knew they were coming probably days ago.

They pulled to a stop by the giant garage off to the side. Josh pulled off some fancy stop that always gave Victor a heart attack while he just pulled up nice and slow. No one had come out to great them, so the two pulled their saddlebags off the motorcycles (Josh still freaked out over them being called saddlebags to this day), and headed inside. Victor led the way up the front steps, knowing where to go first of all, and appearing less threatening since he had yet to break Josh of his gun habit. Josh called them comfort objects and refused to go anywhere without one. At least he wasn’t trigger happy.

Inside the big doors, waiting for them near some sort of grand staircase, was Logan. He was looking well, if a little nervous. Josh spotted an open doorway leading into some sort of office space that looked to be holding the rest of the welcoming committee before Logan was pulling him into a hug. He hugged back, letting his shoulders relax a little. Logan remembered him, at least a part of him did.

“Welcome, my friends, to the Institute for Gifted Children,” Charles called from the office as Logan pulled away from Josh, only to go in for an awkward hug with Victor. Josh could work with that at least.

“Sure you don’t want asylum put on the front instead of Institute, or is that another one of those name issues people have now a days?” Josh called as he looked around the main room. Ornate, huge, and way too fancy to be a school for children. “Or maybe go the whole nine yards and just call it Crazy House. The Compound can be Crazy Town.”

“I’m so glad you remember your stay so fondly,” Erik’s voice was a surprise, but seeing he leaning casually against the back of Charles’s chair wasn’t. Reminded Josh of Vas and himself sometimes.

“You were holding out on me, tin man,” Josh tapped at one of the columns supporting the space, amazed that it was real marble. “Seriously, why do you need this? When I went to school, we were lucky if the roof didn’t leak. Hell, we were lucky if we had a roof sometimes.”

“You never went to school, Josh, so stop telling lies,” Victor gave a long suffering sigh as he followed Logan into the office. Josh followed at a slower pace, picking up a silver candlestick and looking it over carefully.

“Put that down, boy,” Logan called from where he had taken a seat by the others. “You can steal from someone else’s house.”

“Aw, but this guy can read minds! How much fun would that be?” Josh set the candlestick down a little sadly before continuing into the office. “And you stop telling lies, Pop. I happen to be a doctor.”

“A doctor of bullshit,” Victor snorted. “That paper is null and void. You’ve been gone too long and haven’t reupped or whatever you have to do.”

“Are you challenging me?” Josh smiled brightly at his father and uncle, the others in the room looking on with varying looks of confusion.

“I’m sure one of the staff here would be more than welcome to help you re-attain your degree, Joshua,” Charles cut in, looking amused at least. “Although I don’t know which one you’ll start with.”

“Being an actual doctor would take too long,” Josh shrugged, flopping down in the only chair left and dropping his bags at his feet. “Probably history, since your current teacher has memory gapes. I’ll keep it pg for the faint hearted here, though. And yes,” Josh met the stunned looks on some of the X-Mens’ faces. “I do have college degrees. Quite a few. It was easier, way back when. Before you had to sell your soul and all that jazz. I needed something to do between fighting. Was a professor for a time, too, and a lawyer.”

“He plays stupid because he likes being a little shit,” Victor added unhelpfully. “He was mad he didn’t have claws so he made up for it by making sure he was smarter than us.”

“Its weird, there being three of them,” Scott Summers, good old four eyes according to Logan, spoke up.

“Its weird, you existing,” Josh shot back and the man standing behind Scott, who held a slight resemblance to Scott, laughed.

“Well, its good to finally meet the missing link between Sabertooth and Wolverine,” the man, Alex Summers if Josh remembered correctly from what Victor had told him of the group, smiled brightly. Victor had said something about an overly chipper attitude.

“Sabertooth and Wolverine. You really did fall off the wagon, didn’t ya?” Josh laughed, smirking at his two older relations.

“Fell off the wagon? I don’t think they ever made it on one,” the big blue fuzz ball chuckled as Logan shot him a glare.

“He means something a little different then what it means now,” Victor cut in before the two started at it. “Logan was the one who became the superhero. Tights and everything. I just became claws for hire.”

“It’s a uniform, Creed, something us respectable types wear,” Logan snapped at his brother. “And what’s wrong with that?”

“The only uniform I have ever worn was military,” Josh crossed his arms over his chest. “And it did not include tights. I like to breath down there. Nothing wrong with it, more that you became a superhero. Something we all swore we would never do.”

“And what’s wrong with being a superhero?” the red head, Jean, sniffed her nose daintily. Josh figured she probably was a handful.

“Oh, I’m sure for some its not a problem, but we,” Josh gestured between himself, Logan and Victor. “Are definitely not heroes. Last time I tried that gig did not end well.”

“That’s because you pulled a stupid,” Victor huffed. Logan’s sharp breath in drew everyone’s attention to him. His forehead was scrunched in tight, eyes distant.

“You blew yourself up,” Logan said softly, eyes finally drifting to Josh. “Victor was pissed. His horse threw him.”

Victor laughed while Josh closed his eyes for a second. When he reopened them, they were shielded, but his face stayed relaxed, “Yeah, that was a long time ago. Haven’t blown myself up in a while. Although I pretty sure someone in Texas wanted to.”

“I managed to keep him from not angering the locals too much, I could only do so much,” Victor shrugged, reaching over to squeeze Josh’s shoulder. “Figured we’d at least stop in for a bit, see what trouble we can cause here.”

“You are always welcome here, both of you,” Charles nodded calmly. “Thankfully you came on a weekend, so you aren’t interrupting classes. I’m sure we can show you to your rooms and then give you a tour of the grounds, if you would like.”

“Sure, why not,” Josh stood, scooping up his bags as he went. “Got a gun range stashed out there somewhere?”

“Sadly, you will find most of us here do not like guns all that much,” Charles smiled as he wheeled himself forward. “I’m sure we can find you something suitable.”

“Right, I’m adding this to the list,” Josh shot Victor a glare as the older man stood.

“Making a list won’t make it better,” Victor laughed, throwing an around his son’s shoulders.

“It makes me feel better,” Josh pouted as they followed Charles out. Logan followed with Erik, the rest of the group staying behind.

“I assure you, Joshua, as horrible as this world is, it is better to let it exist than trying to change it to your standards,” Erik deadpanned from beside Logan. “For some reason, people like living the way they do.”

“Oh, I like him,” Josh looked back at Erik, smiling brightly. “How do you feel about ditching the cape and starting a band?”

“I will have you know, he’s serious,” Victor pulled Josh in tight against his side and Josh let himself relax. As weird as everything was now, it seemed at least there were a few decent people out there.


	14. Hello, Darkness, My Old Friend

2017

“That seems ominous,” Josh didn’t even try to hold his sass back. He figured that if Gibbon worked it out who he was, it wouldn’t be long into this before Gibbon showed his hand and he had been right, “Even if I knew where this seventh member was, you are in no place for any sort of negotiation to gain possession of them. At this moment, all you can do is make sure you don’t end up going through a trial as a traitor to the United States.”

“Cut the bullshit,” Gibbon stood, pointing a finger at Josh. “You are Joshua Creed, aka Joshua Faraday, aka Cowboy. You were born in 1851, are the son of some prostitute and Victor Creed, and once fought with these men behind me as a part of the Magnificent Seven. Stryker knew this, the bastard, and hid you from me!”

“Stryker didn’t even know where I was when he died,” Josh scoffed, deciding he was done playing games with this man. “His scientists shipped me off without his knowing. They even forgot about me themselves. But, if you know so much about me, you know you can’t win this.”

“You have no weapons, you are outnumbered and you’re on my ground. I’d say I’ve already won,” Gibbon smiled as he waved the Six forward. “I want him alive.”

“I wouldn’t do that, Gibbon, if you want your set to remain whole,” Josh moved away from the table, placing himself between Barker and the rest of the room. “I’m not afraid to kill to get out of here. That includes killing them.”

“These men? The men you fought with for ten years?” Gibbon laughed. “Your tough act doesn’t fool me, Cowboy. You’ll do everything in your power to save them.”

“Your definition of saving is different from mine. I buried these men myself, 128 years ago. Saving them now, after everything you’ve done to them, would making it end quickly. So I’d think very carefully about your next words,” Josh rested his hands on his hips, just above his belt. He had a good idea on Gibbon’s answer.

“Take him down,” Gibbon snarled as he reached for something on his belt. Josh drew his backup piece as the Six started to move forward, shooting Gibbon first through his belt, where his hand was reaching, then through the heart. He then dropped the first four guards who reached for their guns with shots through their heads. He dropped his piece and let his blades slide out as everyone else in the room froze.

“Mr. Barker, are you alright?” Josh didn’t take his eyes off of the men in front of him, but he heard the lawyer shift slowly behind him.

“I…he….no,” Barker cleared his throat, voice shaky. “This was not what I signed up for.”

“No, I’m sure its not, but Gibbon is out of the picture, which will make this easier. Gentlemen, stand down,” Josh focused his attention to the Six in front of him. Sam was a little ways ahead of the others, arms out in a gesture to keep the other five back. Red’s hands were crackling with lighting and Vasquez had fire ringing his fingers. From what Josh could see, which made him happy, was that none of them had new powers.

“So, the dreams were real,” Sam started, the familiar drawl still there.

“I’m afraid so,” Josh kept his blades out but relaxed his shoulders. “I’m sorry for what was done to you here. Bringing you back and then forcing you to fight a war you had no say in is inhumane. We’ll do everything to seek justice for you.”

“You said you would kill us,” Sam lowered his arms and the others relaxed as well. “Even after everything we went through?”

“Like I told Gibbon, that was 128 years ago. A lot has happened since then. You aren’t those men, not here and now,” Josh forced himself to keep his breathing normal. “I said my goodbyes a long time ago. I’ve lived with your deaths and I can go on living with them. But, seeing as you seem to be in control of yourselves, it is not up to me. Its up to you.”

“What do you mean?” Goody spoke up, just behind Billy’s left shoulder. From the distance between them, or lack there of, those two were still together at least.

“You haven’t been living, not really. This,” Josh gestured around the room. “Has been borrowed time. Looking back on your life, if you feel that you would like for this to be nothing more than a memory, I am willing to help.”

“You would kill them,” Barker breathed out and Josh took the squeak of leather as the man collapsing back into his chair. “After everything.”

“What was done here was cruel and unusual, Mr. Barker. I would only be correcting the error that was made,” Josh took a step to the side and turned his body so he could see Barker as well as the Six. “It is up to them, however. If they wish to experience this new world they have found themselves in, then I know people who can help.”

“You’re 166 years old,” Vasquez spoke, voice as familiar as ever, and Josh failed to suppress the shiver that ran through him. “You have lived 166 years on this planet and have not died. You buried us.  You buried me and you are so willing to just kill us?”

Josh looked away, taking a deep breath, “Its not about what I want. It is never about what  I want. Its about what you want to do and none of you should take my thoughts or feelings into account. It should be what you want, what you need.”

“He’s gone from selfish to selfless,” Horne snorted from his spot nearest the wall. He shifted his weight so he was leaning against the wall behind him, face relaxed and kind, “You can get the bracelets off?”

“Yes, that should be easy,” Josh looked back at them, face impassive. “Do you need time to think?”

Sam looked back at the others and received nods from everyone. Goody had draped himself over Billy’s back, looking amused and calm while Billy just looked annoyed. Red looked indifferent and Vas….Vas was looking at Josh like he was willing the other man to actually look at him, which Josh was not doing. He’d spent the last 128 years mourning this man, even if 30 had been spent in ice. He’d never been able to get the man out of his head, no matter how much he had tried. The only person he’d ever been serious about other than Vas had been Kayla and she had turned out to not even care for him. Wade was fun to be with, but he had Vanessa and they loved each other, even if they welcomed Josh into their bed from time to time.

“We’re all tired, Sam,” Goody spoke up, drawing Josh’s thoughts back to the present. “Some rest would be nice.”

“I’m sick of fighting,” Red shrugged his shoulders. “A break would be nice.”

“Joshua,” Vas started but Josh held up his hand, silencing him, blades still out.

“Don’t,” Josh snarled, still not looking at Vas. He would not let himself be the deciding factor for these men.

Sam cleared his throat and crossed his arms, “We’d like to meet these people who can help us acclimate to this world. The X-Men, I’m assuming?”

“Yes, that would be correct,” Josh turned to the lawyer. “Mr. Barker?”

“I will…contact the board involved in this project. We’ll meet again in two weeks, have terms for these men to sign, nothing too terrible,” Barker nodded absently, staring down at the table. “Just a final piece of paperwork, releasing them from the contracts they signed when they awoke.”

“You have my business card. Call if there are complications. I’ll be moving these men to a secure location, I’ll send details at a later time,” Josh finally let his blades retract as he pulled out his phone and started tapping the screen absently. “A few of my friends will be staying with you, acting as your bodyguards for the foreseeable future. They should be here shortly.”

Josh reached into a pocket in his coat and pulled out a small device, which he stuck in his ear before tapping something on his phone. He slipped it into a pocket as he reached down to pick up his backup piece, humming thoughtfully. He checked his piece over before slipping it back into his holster and turning to the Six, “Wrists, gentlemen?”

“Excuse me?” Sam frowned at him, eyebrow raised.

“As stylish as those lovely control bracelets are, I’m sure we want them off so you aren’t tracked. You will also have to leave your weapons here and you’ll have to change into something that is being brought here before we can leave the facility. Erik?” Josh moved towards the Six and sidestepped Sam to kneel by Gibbon’s body. “I have seven for pick up and one for an escort.”

Josh patted down Gibbon’s body as he listened to whoever was speaking in his ear before making a triumphant noise and standing. In his hand was a set of keys, jangling as he held them up and inspected them, “They all seem in good health, so medical can wait till we get where we’re going. I don’t kill people every time I’m let out!”

Sam coughed as he held out his wrists, eyebrow going higher. Josh shot him a glare as he moved closer and set about trying the keys, “Yes, I did kill people here. I don’t see why that is…Really? Really?!”

Sam’s first bracelet fell away and Josh made quick work of the second before passing the keys to him and turning away, “I have had plenty of ops where no one died. At least, no one that I killed. Charles is just being rude.”

Sam moved from one man to the next, starting with Vas and moving onto Billy. They watched Josh cautiously, remembering him only from dreams. In those, he was a brash young man, full of fire and life. This man before then was cool, collected and calculating.  

Once all of the Six were freed they turned to Josh, who was silent, still listening to whomever was speaking in his ear. He glanced at them, nodded his head and spoke, “We’ll meet you on the roof in thirty. Cowboy out.”

Josh pulled the device from his ear and stuck it back in his pocket, turning completely to the Six, “Our ride is here. If you’ll follow me to the roof we’ll get you someplace safe.”

“Are you coming with, guero?” Vas moved forward, reaching for Josh but the other man shifted away, just out of reach and headed for the door.

“This way,” was all Josh said from the room to the roof, where a strange plane was waiting. Sleek, black and futuristic, it obviously belonged to the X-Men. A man covered in blue fur and a woman with red hair stood at the end of the open ramp. Josh clasped the man’s hand as he nodded to the woman, “Everything secure?”

“The rest of the task forced have been subdued,” the woman nodded, glancing over the men behind Josh. “Colossus and Nightcrawler are with Mr. Barker until Havok and Iceman have finished their sweep. These the Six?”

“All accounted for. Seem to be in control of themselves, but I’ll let you decide,” Josh pulled away from the furry man and moved farther into the ship. “I’ll leave them in your care. Scott flying?”

“I flew,” the red head spoke up. “Take over?”

“Happily, my dear,” Josh turned and threw an extravagant bow before disappearing into the ship.

The woman turned the Six, who all were looking a little lost, “Give him time, he takes a while to warm up to people.”

“We’re not exactly strangers, ma’am,” Sam sighed before moving forward. “Let’s get this over with.”

The woman smiled sadly and led them onto the ship. As the ramp closed behind them, they all couldn’t help but look back one last time. Even though it had been a prison to them, it was still all they had known for some time.

“If you all could sit, please,” the woman spoke, gesturing to some bench seating along the edge of the plane as they felt it shudder. “We’re getting ready to take off and Cowboy likes to go fast.”

“Always has,” Vas smiled sadly, missing the woman’s thoughtful look as they all sat down.

“I do apologize for this,” the woman smiled just as sadly, pressing fingers to her head and suddenly the Six were feeling extremely tired.

“Don’t fight it,” the blue furred man said gently as the Six fought against whatever was happening. It wasn’t long before darkness took them all, sweeping them to someplace more peaceful.


	15. I've Come to Talk With You Again

2018

Josh hadn’t been there when Charles and Jean had woken the Six up after carefully examining their minds and bodies for signs of control from an outside source. He had cleared out of the Institute as soon as they had landed, avoiding both Victor and James as he did so. He kept in contact with them, but he could not be in the same house with the Six right now. If something happened, he didn’t think he would handle it well. He had gone to one of his bolt holes and worked with Barker on getting the paperwork all done. He’d then spent the next 6 months in D.C., dealing with politics over the fiasco once it came to light. He’d skillfully avoided the Six when they were summoned to a hearing for their part in Project Rose Creek, his part of the questioning kept detached and logical. Then clearing out before any of them could catch up with him.

Victor had caught up with him in D.C., telling him he was an idiot, smacking him upside the head and then pulling him into a long hug. Logan had volunteered to stay back and help the Six acclimate. They’re memories of Logan and Victor would make Logan out to be the nicer of the two. They’d all gotten on better with Logan than Victor, which Victor didn’t care too much about. It meant he could act as his son’s protector during a time when he knew Josh’s attention was elsewhere.

Charles finally had had enough and summoned both Josh and Victor back to the Institute as the hearings took on a new tone now that the part involving the Six had been handled. Now, the government was looking into the leadership behind the program, so Charles was sending Beast to take over what Josh had started. Josh had been working with Beast the entire time and they had discussed Beast taking over once it hit the more political side of things, so it was a good point to pass off the case. Josh just didn’t want to go deal with the elephant in the room. Charles wasn’t leaving him a choice in the matter, however. Either Josh came to the Institute and spoke with the Six or Charles was sending Erik to get him and it would not be pleasant. Last time that had happened, Josh was sure his insides were melting so he knew which option he was taking.

So 6 months after stealing the Six from a military base, Josh was riding up the drive on his Harley, Victor already back a few days prior. Josh had waited for Beast to show up at the office Josh had set up in D.C. and had gone over what he had. Victor had headed back early, sick of all of the politics and lawyer speak. April was well upon them, most of the students gone for spring break so the grounds were unusually still. Josh bypassed the main house, knowing already that no one wanted to see him there till he talked to the Six.

Charles, as his students got older, had converted a part of his property into housing for the ones who were not necessarily ready to head into society. That was where they had set up the Six, in one of the houses on the outskirts off the village that was quickly growing out there. Some of the mutants headed to the Compound or headed to some of the newer settlements that were popping up, but a few stayed here. The Six kept to themselves, exploring the estate or meeting with some of the older mutants, but rarely seeking out contact with anyone outside of their circle. They were acclimating well, but both Charles and Logan had mentioned that they seemed to be stalling out in their recovery. They also constantly asked after Josh.

Josh easily found the house the Six were staying at, pulling up their private drive and parking near the front door. It was a decent Queen Anne replica, painted a nice combination of green and brown. It was big enough that each member could have their own room but not too big that they felt they were alone. Josh knew how that went.

The front door opened as he dismounted from his bike on the side farthest from the house, Vasquez moving to lean against the door jam, eyes guarded. Josh looked him over silently before shrugging his trench coat off. Now that he wasn’t flying through the crisp April air, he was starting to feel how warm it was outside. Underneath, he wore a pair of jeans, a grey Henley and his gun harness. He folded his coat and stashed it in one of his saddlebags before moving around his bike towards the door, “Charles said you all were asking about me.”

“You spend six months avoiding us and that’s the first thing you say?” Vasquez was mad. Josh could see it in the tight lines around his eyes and the way his voice was just a little too crisp, too clean compared to his usual tone.

“I was busy making sure you all weren’t hunted down any time soon,” Josh shrugged, coming to a stop a few feet away from Vasquez and crossing his arms over his chest. He’d stored his pistols in his saddlebags before he’d left D.C., so he was feeling a little exposed.

“Right, because in the last 129 years, you’ve made a name for yourself. You’ve joined a new team and made new friends and you run from us like we are the plague,” Vasquez snapped, standing up straight and stalking towards Josh. “You speak of killing us, of letting us chose our fate instead of letting someone else decide it for us. You speak of a future here in this time, but you do not want to be a part of it with us. Why go through all of that trouble to save us when you were just going to abandon us?”

“It hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies, ya know?” Josh scoffed, hating how easy it was to hide how much Vasquez’s words hurt him. “I’ve been shot at a few times, here and there.”

“Is everything still a joke to you?” Vasquez stopped so there was only a foot of space between them. “After all of this time, you still find the need to minimalize a situation.”

“Its what I’ve always done, why change now?” Josh shrugged, resisting the urge to reach out and just touch Vasquez. He was right there, for the first time in 129 years and he wasn’t allowing himself this. He couldn’t, not when it could be gone in an instant.

“Logan says you’re trying to protect yourself,” Vasquez sighed sadly, dropping his arms to his arms to his sides, eyes on Josh. “He says something happened, something bad, but he wouldn’t say what. I assume it has something to do with the new powers.”

Josh glanced down at his hands briefly before looking back up, “It’s a different world out there than the one you all left.”

“Logan and Victor don’t have any new powers, just Logan’s metal skeleton. We know where that came from,” Vasquez searched Josh’s face. “Why are you afraid?”

“Because you shouldn’t be here,” Josh finally bit out, vocalizing what he had been hiding for so long. The Six had been dead for so long and now they were back. It was like a slap in the face to Josh, reminding him of all that he had lost and what he could lose. He didn’t want to lose them again, he couldn’t.

“But we are and we want you here with us. Logan said you and Victor have been running ops on your own for years, going after Weapon X bases when you can. You and Victor have always been close, but this is different,” Vasquez reached out and Josh flinched away.

“Something happened that I really don’t want to talk about,” Josh snapped, taking a step back. “If you want, I can speak to Charles about working you into the X-Men rotation. If you have nothing else you want to discuss, I should be heading up to the main house.”

“Guero,” Vasquez snarled and lunged forward, tackle-hugging Josh to the ground as the other man made a move to leave. Josh felt the breath leave him as he hit the ground but fought back, trying not to hurt Vasquez but not really able to handle the close proximity of his old lover. Vasquez wasn’t letting up, though, and soon gained the upper hand with a cheap shot to Josh’s middle. As Josh tried to regain his breath, Vasquez pinned his hands above his head and sat on Josh’s hips to pin his legs. He smiled triumphantly down at the other man, who just glared back up at him. Vasquez shook his head, still smiling, “You fight too much, guerito.”

“Its kept me alive this long,” Josh snapped at him, testing how much freedom he had against Vasquez and finding very little. “This changes nothing. You will still die again and I will have to bury you again. I don’t want to become that man again.”

“I won’t let you become that man,” Vasquez leaned down, pressing his head against Josh’s as he let go of the other man’s wrists. “I can’t die, Joshua. You didn’t read the files, did you?”

“No, I didn’t want to know…what do you mean, you can’t die?” Josh pushed Vasquez away so he could sit up and face the other man, eyes narrowed with worry.

“I was shot on a mission, I was dying. Gibbon panicked and had them inject me with something. I have a healing factor now, just like you,” Vasquez reached out and wrapped his hand around Josh’s shoulder.

“No,” Josh jerked back, a hand coming up to cover his mouth. “No, they didn’t.”

“They did, Joshua. What’s the matter?” Vasquez moved closer, wrapping an arm around Josh as the other man closed his eyes.

“They made you like me. Vas…Vas, I don’t wish that on anyone,” Josh felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under him. Was this what Victor and Logan had felt, when they found about his healing factor? “This is the worst fate any man could live.”

“But I get to be with you. I would have given anything for that all those years ago,” Vasquez pressed his forehead against Josh’s. “I am not losing you again.”

“I didn’t want this for you,” Josh finally gave in and wrapped his arms around Vasquez, shifting his face down so that it was pressed against Vasquez’s shoulder. He smelled different now than Josh remembered and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

“No, its what I wanted,” Vasquez returned the favor, pulled Josh close. “And I will never be sorry about it. I’m not leaving you again.”


	16. And So It All Ends

2018

Josh hadn’t gone into the house, after. He’d said goodbye to Vasquez and headed up to the main house, where he had sought out his father and uncle. They’d locked themselves in Victor’s room for two days and when the three had come out, they were back to their surly selves. Logan dragged Josh and Victor back out to see the Six and forced everyone to have a nice sit down dinner. It had been awkward, the Six unsure with this new, friendly Victor and a silent, standoffish Josh. They made it through the dinner and started trying to spend more time together. The Six weren’t allowed on any missions, so they spent a lot of time working on the farm on the property seeing as they weren’t being called off at random hours of the day. Josh had trips to D.C. and the missions he ran with his father, uncle or the X-Men, but in his free time he tried to spend time with the Six and get to know them in this century. It was difficult, but he had to try.

He and Vasquez were talking more, texting and calling when Josh was off the estate or making time to see each other. Josh could tell that Vasquez wanted their old relationship, but Josh found that he couldn’t bring himself to restart it. Even with knowing, after reading over the files completely, that Vasquez could not die, it didn’t make things any better. The Six didn’t know anything about what had happened to Josh since they died and once they found out…Josh didn’t know how they would react.

It wasn’t that he figured they would hate him, he just knew they would pity him at least and Josh was sick of pity at this point. He hated the entire situation and feared it would happen again. Josh, Victor and Logan already knew what would happen if they were used as bargaining chips against each other. Josh also knew what could happen if someone he cared about turned against him. Even though he knew Kayla had been killed and that she couldn’t hurt him anymore, she still did. She had tainted his ability to care about someone and it was hurting Vasquez. The man deserved to be loved and he should not be waiting for Josh to get over his hang ups.

Josh had brought it up right before he was summoned back to D.C. to be used as a witness for the Project Rose Creek case, which was now digging into the Weapon X program that had started this whole debacle. Victor and Logan had finished their hearings a few days prior and already the Six were acting differently around him, knowing that he had been used to make Victor work for Stryker. Josh knew that as soon as he took the stand, files would be released showing exactly what Stryker’s people had done to him. He’d already seen the files, had been the one to find them while searching out Weapon X bases.

Vasquez had looked ready to punch him when Josh suggested that he move on. He had been furious, yelling at Josh about being an idiot and a bunch of other things in Spanish. Josh knew he had a right to be angry and let him have at it. Then Vasquez had stopped and really stared at Josh, eyes narrowed.

“Why are you really pushing me away?” Vasquez had crossed his arms, watching Josh closely.

Josh had sighed and shook his head, “Because you remember me as the man you knew in 1889. I’m not him and haven’t been for a long time. You keep assuming that if you wait long enough, he’ll come back but he can’t. I’m sorry, Vas, I really am.”

With that, Josh had left, not letting Vasquez try to stop him. He’d immediately headed out to D.C. with a quick word to Charles about his absence and his planned trip after the hearing was over. Charles was not happy, but he did not try to dissuade Josh from his plans.

The lawyers that the Project Rose Creek people had hired were merciless in their lines of questioning. Josh had seen that with the Six and with Victor and Logan. He knew his part wasn’t going to be any better and a lot of secrets he had kept hidden since the X-Men had announced him as a member of the team would now be out for everyone to see. He also knew that the Six would be watching, as they had in past, and that made everything worse. Victor had made sure to come, sitting in the section of the hall that had been set aside for the X-Men right behind where Beast was sitting with his people. Erik was there was well, and a few other people Josh assumed were X-Men or mutants from the Compound he hadn’t had the chance to meet.

After he was sworn in, the lead for Project Rose Creek was allowed to question him first. They focused first on where and when he was born, his time with the X-Men and his part in bringing Project Rose Creek into the light. Josh knew that they must be waiting to dig into his connections to the Rose Creek team for last.

“Now, Mr. Creed, this is not the first time you’ve met the mutants that were a part of the Rose Creek experiment, was it not?” the lawyer, a middle aged man who was too full of himself, leaned against the box Josh was sitting in.

“As you hopefully remember from the hearing of the six men involved in Project Rose Creek,” Josh was successfully staying civil, using his lawyer voice to its limits. “They informed the court of that connection, but I shall go over it again to help you remember. I was approached by Mr. Chisholm back in 1879 to help free a town from persecution by one Bartholomew Bogue.  We were successful in our endeavors and traveled together for another ten years before the other six, Mr. Chisholm, Mr. Horne, Mr. Robicheaux, Mr. Rocks, Mr. Vasquez and Mr. Park, were killed in an ambush.”

“You buried these men yourselves, did you not?” the lawyer was too smug for his own good. Josh did not see why this mattered, but he was sure in the long run it was meant for something.

“Yes, I did. As the court knows, one of my mutant powers is a healing factor. I survived the ambush because of this,” Josh glanced at Beast, who was looking tense, and the other mutant nodded back before looking over his notes.

“Because of these powers, you and your family were sought out by Colonel Stryker, yes?” the lawyer moved away, back to his table. “Could you go into detail the role you played in Project X for the court?”

“I was approached by a member of Colonel Stryker’s team in 1976 and formed a relationship with them that was used to kidnap me in 1977. I was used by Colonel Stryker to persuade my father, Victor Creed, into working for Colonel Stryker to gain access to my uncle, James Logan. Both my father and my uncle had previous worked on a strike team that Colonel Stryker had assembled and Colonel Stryker was using those members for Project X.”

“You’re leaving out a lot of details, Mr. Creed,” the lawyer picked up a notepad, walking back towards Josh. “In 1976, you were approached by Kayla Silverfox and you two formed a romantic relationship. She was able to trick you for over a year before, in 1977, she used her mutant powers to kidnap you and deliver you to Colonel Stryker. Colonel Stryker did use you as blackmail against your father, but he also delivered you to one Doctor Lester, who was working at a remote base to improve on the capabilities of Weapon X, was he not?”

“That is true. I personally was never introduced to Doctor Lester, but from the files I read it would seem to be true,” Josh felt his shoulders tense. He knew this moment was coming, but nothing could ever prepare him for it.

“Doctor Lester harvested your blood and cells to create the necessary solution that was used to give Weapon X his healing factor. He also used you to test the theories the other scientists had of grafting adamantium to bones to make them stronger and introducing new powers to a mutant who already had a healing factor, correct?” the lawyer stopped in front of Josh, looking up.

“That is correct, according to the files I have read,” Josh braced himself, knowing what was coming.

“From the files you read? How is it that you were not aware of what was going on at this time?” the lawyer smiled almost too brightly.

“I was kept under sedation at all times while I was held by Doctor Lester. When not being seen by the doctor or his assistants, I was kept cryogenically frozen to be less of a hassle for them,” Josh met the lawyer’s eyes coolly.

“And how long were you kept frozen?” the lawyer attempted to contain his glee and Josh realized what he was doing. The man knew that Project Rose Creek was going to lose, but that didn’t meant they weren’t going to try to cause as much damage as possible. Driving a wedge between him and the Six was a good start. Possibly trying to drive them away from the X-men for possible recapture as well under a new secret program.

“I was kept frozen for 30 years, till the X-Men accidentally discovered me while seeking answers to the missing memories of my uncle,” Josh sat up straight. He knew he had one chance to keep things from falling apart here, “They took me, reconnected me with my father who thought I had been dead for those 30 years and helped my family find the answers we needed. I was also able to save my friends from a fate worse than the one I suffered at the hands of your employers. I would also like to point out that none of this is relevant to this case. I know what you are hoping will happen and I assure you, these men are smarter than you assume them to be.”

The lawyer flinched but kept his eye contact, “I do not know what you assume we are doing, Mr. Creed. Now, you say you were frozen for 30 years, yes?”

“Yes, that is what I said,” Josh sat back, crossing his arms.

“So, then you do not remember, Mr. Creed, waking up from time to time and having discussions with not only Doctor Lester, but also Doctor’s Richardson and Hudson?” the lawyer was smiling again.

“That did not happen,” Josh sat up straight, eyes hard. “I would remember and they would have put them in their files.”

“I would like to submit Doctor Hudson’s personal log for evidence,” the lawyer went back to the table, taking a stack of binders from one of his aides and then moving towards the stand. “These were recovered in a search of Doctor Hudson’s home by one of our teams after the Six were removed from out custody. It details discussions held between the three doctors and Mr. Creed that were held after waking the man for a short time.”

“Sir, I call to adjourn this hearing until myself and my team have a chance to look over this new evidence,” Beast stood immediately as Josh slumped back in his seat, staring at the binders in horror.

“Agreed. I will also be looking into how long you’ve had these files, Mr. Johnson. If this court finds you in contempt or withholding evidence, there will be consequences,” the judge waved the security in. “See Mr. Johnson and his team to their offices and seize all of their materials and technology.”

Suddenly Victor was in Josh’s space, pressing his hands to the sides of Josh’s face, “Joshua, breath.”

Josh hadn’t realized he’d stopped breathing, focused on the pile of binders sitting on the stand before the judge. He sucked in a deep breath, feeling the burning in his lungs as though from a distance. He forced himself to continue breath, letting Victor pull him up and bodily drag him from the court room through a door Beast was holding open. It led to a small chamber, Victor gently pushing Josh into one of the chairs around a small table, kneeling in front of Josh and gripping his hands tight as he looked up at his son. Josh met his eyes and he knew that Victor could understand the path his mind had taken.

Victor pulled Josh into a hug, pulling the younger man down onto the floor with him as he held his son close as Josh started to sob uncontrollably, “It wasn’t your fault, Joshua, it wasn’t your fault.”

Josh shook his head where he had it pressed against Victor’s shoulder, “I told them. I told them where to find the bodies. Its my fault, all my fault that their back. Its all my fault. I did this to them. I did this. Oh god, I did this to them.”


	17. End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kinda a throw away chapter but I needed this out. Plans for a much longer chapter in the works for after the trial.

2010

When Josh had agreed to be a backup for the X-Men main team, he figured he’d be left to his own devices most of the time. Maybe take a few trips across the country, maybe hope across the pond and see how Europe was looking in this century. So when, a week after he’d finished the paperwork (seriously, why was there paperwork?), Charles had summoned him to his office down in the “basement” of the main house. Josh was starting to not find all of the little codes funny anymore, really.

It had been easy missions, so they were more annoying than anything. Hitting military bases, seeking out information with Logan and Victor about Project X. Logan sometimes had to leave them to run missions with the X-Men or teach classes at the school as need be. Victor sometimes left but because he didn’t like being around people for so long, memories forcing him back to the Institute or to a cabin in northern Canada when it got too bad. Josh sometimes went with, needing to get away as well.

Sometimes, Josh ended up on his own, traveling the globe. He hated to admit it, but he liked it best that way, when it was just him and his thoughts on the world. He could observe at his pace, find himself in this new world. He made sure to check in and complete the missions, but they were so simple that they didn’t take a lot of effort, at least not for him.

He understood why Logan and Victor needed to get away from it all, from humans. They were needlessly cruel, always had been. Josh had been on the brink, ready to seek out a life like his father and uncle, when he had met Kayla. He shouldn’t have let that even begin and now he was paying for it.

His memories of the time in the ice, when people asked, didn’t exist. But there were times, when he had time to focus on it, that he would get glimpses. Images and phrases and memories that were there but not there. He didn’t know what they were or what they meant, but the nightmares that came with them never left. Something awful had happened while he was under the ice and he couldn’t remember but he didn’t know if he wanted to.

This mission, Josh was paired up with Rogue. He was headed into the Rockies, to an abandoned base he’d discovered while clearing out a Weapon X facility. He’d contacted Charles, per usual, and sent him the data he had collected before saying he was following a lead. It was casually mentioned in a report, coordinates discovered in a private memo between scientists. It didn’t seem like it was going to lead to anything, but Josh figured it wouldn’t hurt to go look. Plus, it was well away from people and he was starting to feel thin, exposed. Charles had still insisted on Rogue coming along, so he had accepted her help semi-willingly. She was basically Logan’s adopted daughter, so he had gotten to know her better than some of the others on the team. Plus, she liked her silence as well.

The base was abandoned, when he arrived. Looked to have been that way for a while. The trees around the main buildings were overgrown and the grass was long. The buildings above ground looked like old metal barns, rusty now from disuse. Inside, the buildings were just as bad, dust everywhere and the occasional animal droppings. Rogue was waiting inside the main building, having gotten there sooner with the jet versus his bike. She gave him a nod and then moved silently into the building. Why waste words when they could used later, anyways?

Underground, where the main base was, everything was pristine. All the equipment had been covered in plastic, files had been sealed up properly and everything had been shut down so Josh just had to power everything back up once he got inside. He sat down at a station and started the computer there up. The model was no more than 5 years old, so Josh figured it had been recently abandoned but with the hopes of coming back.

Rogue had moved towards the front of the room, exploring something up there, so that left Josh to force his way into the system and start downloading their files onto the flash drive he had brought with. He hoped that whatever was in them would lead to this chase to being done and over with. They knew that some remnant of Weapon X was out there and wanted to squash it, but were no closer to finding it.

“Josh, I think you need to see this,” Rogue called, her voice shaky. Josh looked up to find her looking through a large window he had ignored as he came in. He figured it was a screen, but Rogue must’ve found a light switch to reveal what was beyond. He got up, making sure the files were downloading before heading over.

“What have we got?” Josh moved to her side and looked out through the window, feeling his stomach drop. Row upon row upon row of upright, pill-shaped tubes stretched out before them, 4 wide and 5 deep. The worst part was, they had found a similar facility shortly after Josh had started working for the X-Men, one that had housed his Uncle for a time. Each of the capsules had had their own room, but each had held a Weapon X project. The main difference was all of these capsules were dark, the ones at the other facility had been lit up.

“Shit, they killed them,” Josh breathed out, pressing a hand against the glass.

“But why? That’s a lot of time gone to waste,” Rogue frowned, looking over the dark capsules herself.

“Unless there’s nothing in them,” Josh turned and went back to the computer he had been on, pulling up files at random. “Setting up for a larger operation and got spooked, maybe.”

“Then what were they working on?” Rogue pulled up another chair and started reading over Josh’s shoulder. “Holy shit.”

“That’s not…it was always Logan they referenced,” Josh sat back, staring at the screen blankly. Before him, in bold black letters, was his name followed by “source alpha”.

“They had you first,” Rogue spoke softly, resting a gloved hand on his wrist. “But they didn’t do anything here.”

“That we know of,” Josh ran his free hand over his face, closing his eyes. “We’ll finish this, grab as many of the paper files as possible, and head back to the mansion.”

“We’ve got your back,” Rogue stood, offering hand to Josh. Josh took it and let himself be helped up. As true as that statement was, Josh wasn’t sure that they would stick to their word. He hoped he didn’t find out for a long time.


	18. The Old Oak Tree

2018

Josh spent a week holed up in the Compound with Victor, going over all the binders that Beast had somewhat unwillingly parted with. He knew the news was a buzz with the latest with the case, speculation where he was, how the Six were taking the “betrayal” from their former teammate as some of the media outlets were calling it, and where the case was going to go now. Would Josh be charged at some point as an accomplice? Would the X-Men continue to support him? What was going to happen now?

Josh knew the X-Men would never abandon him. Some of their other members had done horrible things while in full control of themselves and they were still allowed to participate in all X-Men related functions. From what Josh had gleaned from the binders, he was purposefully wiped after each session through a series of medications and electric shocks so that he would stay compliant. He had had no control and there was plenty of documentation to prove that. There was also plenty of documentation on all the experiments they ran on him.

They’d initially used him as a test dummy for not only grafting adamantium to a human skeleton, but also adding new mutations to a host. The swords were also something they’d decided to try last minute, after they’d grafted the adamantium on. One of the scientists had pointed out that two of his family members had claws as part of their mutation so if they could isolate that gene sequence, they could “awaken” that mutation in him. It had worked, miracle of miracles, but had killed him in the process. Strain on his heart, supposedly, but he’d come back on his own, surprising the man running the morgue.

So at least he now knew how he’d gotten all of his fun powers. But he also knew that he had given away his former team as well as outing other mutants he’d run into over the years. It had taken quite a bit of persuasion, but they still had the names. Josh had felt sick after finishing the last binder and early the next morning had taken off, needing to get away. He’d run a circuit around the US, searching out old haunts and checking in on old friends. He’d checked records and gravestones, making sure he didn’t have any more blood on his hands. There were a few that had died mysterious deaths, but most had died naturally. He hadn’t betrayed too many then.

And it was betrayal, no matter what anyone would try to tell him. No matter how he was involved, he had still given the information that had gotten them killed. Or resurrected, in the case of the Six. He’d given up their burial location and quite possibly had his dna used to revive them. He’d also been the cause of Vas not being killed, according to his former lover. The list was growing and Josh hated it with every fiber of his being.

His final stop was a piece of land he’d owned for a very long time. It was around 55 acres of land, well off the beaten path on the edge of the Rockies near the Canadian border. Only a simple cabin and garage stood in the middle of the heavily wooded land, updated and renovated a few times over the years to appear mostly modern. He’d just recently had the access road repaved, so it was smooth sailing up to the structures waiting at the end of the road. He parked his bike outside the garage and stood, just staring out at the woods surrounding him. He’d once been a very social creature, craving the attention of others like a source of food. He’d soak it all in, dazzling the crowds he drew with his card tricks and poker games. But those were days long past and now he sought refuge from the very people he had once sworn never to leave.

There was nothing he could do about it now, nothing he wanted to do about it right now either. His past and present were colliding and his world was imploding all around him. He was losing focus, losing his mental footing and just needed time away from it all. So he came here, this little cabin in the middle of nowhere.

Years ago, Josh had ridden up here chasing a bounty, years after the others had passed. Jack was getting on in age and only showed it in the grey appearing on his muzzle. He hadn’t slowed and his temperament had mellowed. Faraday had gotten the bounty, but not before the man had injured Jack. The horse had made it through getting the man into town and then out to here, where Josh had been forced to put Jack down when he had taken a turn for the worse. He’d buried him out here and planted an oak tree over him. Then he’d gone back into town and bought that parcel of land and a few around it. Over the years, he’d made sure to keep up on the property, making sure it stayed out of the wrong hands.

Josh shook himself and headed into the woods, brushing hands against trees as he went. In a clearing before him a few minutes in, a huge oak stood. A metal plaque had been hammered into the tree. All it had on it was an image of a horse. When Josh had had it made, he’d used a sketch Billy had made of Jack once. It was a good likeness, so Josh hadn’t complained.

Josh sat down in the roots, leaning against the tree and closing his eyes. He pressed his hands into the soil by his legs and just breathed for a while. He didn’t know how long he just sat there, but at some point he realized tears were running down his cheeks. He dug his fingers in more and took a shuddering breath.

“They’re back, Jack. They came back.”


	19. Into the Breach

2018

Josh was called back to D.C. three months after arriving at the cabin. He’d made regular calls to Victor and to Beast over that time, but didn’t answer any incoming calls or texts. He didn’t check his email unless it was related to the case and he didn’t respond to the X-Men comms at all. He was out here to re-center himself so that when he returned to the real world, his armor, real and mental, were firmly in place.

He roared into D.C. late in the night, under the cover of the dark sky to a small house on the edges of the city.  A safe house in a list of rotating places he, Victor and Logan owned. It was small, normal looking and unassuming. It could have been anyone’s home and that’s what it continued to look like. They had used all the technology they could get their hands on to make sure people just thought it was another house.

He’d barely closed the garage door after pulling in with his motorcycle before the door into the house was opening and Victor was storming into the small space of the two car garage. Josh braced himself for a lecture or just yelling, but Victor just wrapped him up in a hug, crushing Josh in his arms.

“Don’t do that to me again, please,” Victor breathed out and Josh immediately wrapped his arms around his father, burying his face in Victor’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Josh mumbled, his hands gripping the back of Victor’s shirt tightly. “I just needed to get away.”

“I know just…let me know where you go. Please,” Victor squeezed one more time before pulling away, looking Josh over. “You need food. And sleep.”

“Both sound wonderful. I need to go in tomorrow sometime and talk with Beast,” Josh ran a hand over his face, feeling the stubble there and grimacing. “Probably a shower, too.”

“Food, then sleep. You can shower when you get up,” Victor kept an arm around Josh’s shoulders and dragged him into the main house. I have a pizza in the oven keeping warm.”

“You got a pizza?” Josh eyed Victor suspiciously. “Willingly?”

“I’m trying to be nice here, Joshua,” Victor scoffed, pushing Josh down onto the couch. “And I do eat unhealthy food all the time.”

“What kind of pizza did you get?” Josh glared at Victor as his father walked into the kitchen.

“Do you have something against pizza now?” Victor grumbled from the kitchen. I see how grateful you are, boy. I wait up for you, make sure there’s food when you get here, and you question my motives!”

“You would never willingly order me pizza unless something had gone wrong somewhere,” Josh decided he wasn’t going to wait and headed into the kitchen. “You’d get me Chinese from that place we like from New York and keep it warm, like you always do. We only order pizza if something is wrong and you are feeling guilty.”

Josh stopped just in the doorway to the kitchen, taking in the scene before him. Victor was standing by the oven, pizza in hand. Sitting at the counter, a beer cradled in his hands, was Vasquez. Both wore matching looks of innocence.

“What. Is. He. Doing. Here?” Josh forced out, tense as he took in the sight.

“He’s worried about you and wanted to make sure you were alright. He also has a few compelling arguments to help me see to the wellbeing of your mental health,” Victor carefully set the pizza on top of the stove.

“My mental health is of no concern to anyone,” Josh growled, crossing his arms as he glared at the two other men. “I have five days to get ready to speak before the hearing committee again and I was hoping to do that with as little stress as possible.”

“I did not mean to anger you, Joshua,” Vas fiddled with his beer but kept his eyes on Josh. “I am worried for you. We all are. We know you have changed and we want to get to know this you.”

“You don’t need to,” Josh started but Vas stood abruptly, holding his hand up to silence him.

“Let me finish,” Vas snapped and Josh remained silent. Vas nodded and took a deep breath, “We are all worried about you because you are avoiding us and it is new. This whole world is new and when we found out you were still alive, we all thought you could help us survive in this new world. We knew you would be different and we didn’t care. No matter what, you were the man who never once let us down, who was there with us till the end. We wanted you there again for us. We didn’t care how, but we just wanted you there. And you weren’t.”

Josh looked away at this point, focusing on the wall behind Vas, jaw tightening, but he didn’t say anything. Vas took it that he could continue, “You ran away from us but more importantly you ran away from me. And we both know there’s still something there. It’s not your fault that we’re back or that we can’t die. The Immortal Magnificent Seven. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”

“You all can still die,” Josh forced out, eyes back on Vas.

“We all know that’s a lie, Joshua,” Vas scoffed. “We all read those files that were found, we all know what was done to us. We’re just like you and Victor and Logan now, aging with the world. And I would not have it any other way.”

Vas moved around the counter suddenly, moving to stand right in front of Josh, “I love you, you absolute idiot. I have always loved you and I will always love you. I don’t care what you’ve done or what’s been done to you. You are still my Joshua in there, in your heart and in mine. I am not losing you again, even if I have to chase you all over this godforsaken planet. And nothing you say will stop me.”

Josh didn’t answer, he just turned and ran out of the house before either of the other two could stop him. Vas went to go run after him, but Victor had moved to Vas’s side and held him back, looking sad, “Let him go. He’ll be back, just give him time. If he really loves you, like I think he does, he needs some time to remember that.”

Vas looked at Victor then at the door before sighing and nodding. All they could do was wait.


	20. A Long Time Coming

2018

Josh came back a few hours later, looking less mad and more resigned. Victor had gone to bed in a room on the second floor of the safe house. Vas was still up, sitting at the counter in the kitchen and nursing another beer. He looked up as Josh shuffled into the room and set the beer down, wrapping both hands around it as he watched Josh pause and then moved to the fridge to get his own. He didn’t say anything, just waited.

Josh easily flipped the cap off his beer and pulled a stool over so he was sitting across from Vas, taking a long pull from the bottle before sitting down, setting the bottle down on the counter. He took a deep breath and looked right at Vas, “I don’t remember how I felt when I loved you, Vas. I don’t remember what love is even like.”

“How do you feel right now, Joshua?” Vas leaned forward, resting his hand just an inch away from Josh’s.

“To be honest? I’m terrified,” Josh’s fingers twitched, but they stayed where they were. “I have lived on this planet for so long…I’ve forgotten how to feel more often than not. I can go years without thinking about Dad and Logan. I kill people without a second thought and it doesn’t haunt me. I am numb, Vas, and I hate it. I want to feel again, I want to be what I was to you and to the others. I want to be a good son again. I can go through the motions a million times but inside,” Josh stabbed a finger into his chest. “In here there is nothing.”

“There is, we just need to find it,” Vas inched his fingers forward and placed them over Josh’s. He let out a little sigh when Josh didn’t pull away. “Was this why you kept running away?”

“Yes…and no,” Josh dropped his chin, looking down at the counter and quite possibly their hands. “Before…..I couldn’t go through burying you all again or watching you grow old and me staying the same. I was afraid. Now…now I’m afraid you’ll end up like me.”

“How, guero? What is so wrong with you that I should run away?” Vas linked his fingers with Josh’s, holding on tight. “I see a brave, strong man who did not let time slow him down. And I know I won’t end up empty, like you fear I will. Would you like to know why?”

“No, Vas, you aren’t listening,” Josh’s fingers twitched again, almost pulling away but stopping himself. “I’m not a good thing. Being like me, like my father and my uncle, is not a good thing. We live through history, we see all the horrible things people do to each other and we enjoy it. We live for it. We thrive on it. Everyone back at that school is learning to be heroes, superheroes even. We will never be able to be heroes, not with the bodies we’ve left behind us.”

“You are so afraid of what you think you are, that you do not see what you have become,” Vas leaned forward, using his free hand to tip Josh’s chin up so that he was looking at Vas. “You won’t let me fall, you won’t let me stop being human, ever. You will die for me time and time again to keep me from even getting a scratch. I know this because this is what you did before, those ten years we rode together. You sacrificed yourself over and over again for me. For once, let me do the sacrificing. I never wanted a normal life anyways. I only ever wanted you, Joshua.”

“You shouldn’t want me,” Josh jerked his chin away, pulling his hand free as he leaned back, putting distance between him and Vas. “You shouldn’t even be here.”

“I should be dead, I know. But I am not. And I am not going to let you use that as an excuse to run away,” Vas stood, resting his hands on the counter as he leaned in towards Josh, eyes set and hard. “I love you, Joshua Faraday. I have loved you in this lifetime and the last. And I know that’s how I feel, with my entire being. You felt that once and if you give me the chance to help, you can feel that way again.”

“I think its time you went back to the Institute,” Josh stood, meeting Vas’s eyes easily. “I have to prepare for the hearing and it would be a big help to me if you weren’t here.”

“Why are you doing this to yourself, Joshua?” Vas moved around the counter and Josh took a step back, keeping a distance between them. “Why are you hurting yourself like this?”

“I’m hurting myself?” Josh didn’t realize he had raised his voice as his hands clenched into fists. “I did nothing! I was a lab rat for years! I betrayed my friends, over a hundred years after I buried them with my own two hands! My family turned on each other because of me! I know there’s no happy ending for me, Vas, there never has been one in the cards since the very beginning! So don’t tell me I’m hurting myself because this? This thing that you think is stopping me? This pain I’m intentionally inflicting on myself? That’s been there for years, imbedded into my very soul by lesser men who thought they could make themselves gods by messing with what’s right and wrong!”

“Then why are you letting it define you? What happened to the man who did whatever he wanted? Who didn’t conform to what others dictated was the right thing to do or the right person to be?” Vas took another step forward, his own voice rising as well.

“He died, years ago! With needles stuck in his body and metal pumping into his veins!” Josh yelled right back, his fair complexion turning red. “He died after ten years of having his body remade for him! He died after twenty years on ice! Joshua Faraday died in that chamber and Joshua Creed was the one who walked out! I became what I was always meant to be, a cold, heartless killer! This is what was always going to be my destiny, Vas, so I finally accepted it!”

“You are not cold and you are not heartless! You have one of the biggest hearts I have ever met!” Vas moved right into Josh’s space, jabbing a finger into Josh’s chest as he looked down at him. “There is no difference between Faraday and Creed. They are the same man, they have the same skills and the same morals! And so help me, I will remind you of this every day for the rest of our lives if I have to!”

With that, Vas shoved Josh against the wall, pressing his lips against Josh’s has be pressed his one hand into Josh’s chest. The kiss wasn’t gentle, Vas didn’t want it to be. He wanted Josh to feel how angry he was, at the man before him and what the world had done to him. He wanted Josh to feel just how much he meant to him and how far Vas was willing to go to prove it.

Josh kissed back for a second before tensing and shoving Vas away, eyes wide and pupils blown, “What the fuck, Vas?!”

“You weren’t listening, so I decided it was time for action,” Vas easily moved right back into Josh’s space, resting his hands on Josh’s hips. “Tell me to stop and I will.”

“God fucking damnit, Vas,” Josh snarled before wrapping his right hand around Vas’s neck and pulling him down to smash their mouths together. Vas couldn’t help but smirk as he pressed his body up against Josh’s. They could finish their argument later.


	21. Where We Began

1880

Rose Creek, for all that the farmers and villagers and everyone else said about it, left out that the winters could be bitter. The new year had just rolled in, bringing with it as much snow as it wanted to, which meant that most everyone was buried during the three storm blizzard and then for almost a week after the fact. Thankfully, everyone made it through, mainly due to most people had abandoned their farms early in the winter because of the low population and limited supplies. It was a town decision, crops gathered and stored in town and buildings shored up one last time to make it through.

Most of the miners had left in the early fall, some saying they would be back in the spring with a supply train and better equipment for the mine. A few stayed to help the survivors of Rose Creek get through the first winter after the battle for their town. The Magnificent Seven had stayed on as well, not wanting to leave their still healing partners and having seen the town this far, helping with most of the repairs after the battle.

Faraday had left with his father and uncle a few weeks after the battle, disappearing into the wilderness for some “family bonding time” or so Joshua had said. He’d reappeared in the fall, after the last caravans had left and on the heels of the first dusting of snow. He’d put on some of the weight he had lost in the days following the battle, something his uncle said was from the rapid regrowth process. He still had scars that weren’t going away, something that had puzzled the family of super healers to no end. He had a limp, something he said wouldn’t go away unless they did something drastic. Other than that, he had looked healthy and whole, but wary as he had ridden into town just before dark.

Jack had moved on soft feet, but the lone rider had been spotted by Red some time before, just after he had entered the valley. The six remaining riders had taken it upon themselves to protect the town, rotating sentries and vetting all newcomers. Sam had become a stand-in sheriff till the town voted a new one in and the rest were deputies of sorts. Vas had been “on duty” that night and had let the whole town know Joshua was back with his loud shout in greeting. Joshua had relaxed quickly once Goodnight had not so subtly announced that all the law had cared about in the town was who owned the mine now. Joshua had said he’d stick around for a bit, on edge for the first week and then falling into the town going on’s. He hadn’t left yet, but the other six knew it was only a matter of time.

With everyone moving into town, people had had to change housing situations. The Seven had shifted around in their rooms in the hotel so that most were double bunking, with Jack staying with his new lady to help her and her family get through alright. Vas and Faraday were bunking together, to no one’s surprise. Goody and Billy’s relationship was out and open to their closest friends, so it was no surprise to anyone with something started up with Vas and Josh. Whether the two were admitting to that, though, was an entirely different matter.

Which brings this back to being buried during a blizzard for around ten days. Vas and Faraday had given up their room early on in the winter and took over one of the smaller houses on the edge of town for a widow and her three young children so that they were relatively safer. That meant those two were on their own for the first five days, till they were comfortable enough to dig out.

That meant five days of uninterrupted alone time. Vas had looked forward to it, knowing it was as good of time to make a move. Faraday had ruined those plays by sticking by the fire, leg propped up while reading the first day of the blizzard and ignoring all of Vas’s attempts at conversation. Until, that is, they were getting ready for bed. Or rather, Faraday was getting ready for bed. Vas was lying in his bed, a decent sized bed closest to the fire, in just his pants and a loose fitting shirt, reading one of his books in the dim light from a lamp. Faraday was moving around by his bed, sounds of him getting ready for bed drifting to Vas. Then the noises were a lot closer and Vas looked up just as Faraday sat down on Vas’s bed and threw his legs up onto the bed, sighing in relief.

“This cold is doing hell on my leg,” Josh grunted as he leaned back against his pillow, that had somehow appeared without Vas’s notice, and started massaging his right leg where Vas knew the worse of the damage was.

“Do you need help?” Vas set his book aside, watching Josh carefully. He could see the tension lines around his eyes, the only sign that he was in any pain.

“You now have healing hands as a power?” Josh grunted, eyes slipping closed as he hands rubbed hard against his leg in a circular pattern. Instead of answering, Vas sat up and leaned closer, batting Josh’s hands out of the way and taking over, digging his hands in to the damaged flesh beneath the fabric covering the visible damage. He felt Josh tense beneath his hands before letting out a long sigh of relief as Vas’s fingers expertly dug into the tight flesh.

“You stop and I will never forgive you,” Josh practically moaned and Vas risked looking at the other man’s face. The lines around Josh’s eyes were gone and a look of complete bliss had taken residence on the man’s face. His eyes were still closed, but a small smile was tugging at his lips.

“So this is helping?” Vas couldn’t help but tease. Seeing the other man so relaxed, more relaxed than he had been in a long time, seemed to have lightened the air in the small house.

“Yes, you beast, its helping,” Josh laughed a little. “Some gift you haven’t mentioned?”

“I just learned to be good with my hands. I’ve had many compliments on my skill,” Vas winked when Josh opened his eyes, which earned him another laugh as he kept massaging out the other man’s leg.

“Are you flirting with me?” Josh pushed himself up, careful not to jostle his leg as he leaned in close to Vas, a wicked grin on his face.

“I have been trying since we got into this house. Since you got back from your little trip, even,” Vas smiled brightly back. “Its not my fault you are just noticing.”

“Oh, that’s what you’ve been doing all day? Flirting? Well, Texican, I think we need to work on your definition of flirting,” Josh laughed before leaning in to steal a quick kiss before pulling away just as fast.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Vas growled before pushing forward, pressing his lips firmly against Josh’s, keeping them pressed there long enough for Josh to reply in kind, then pull away. Josh looked stunned, staring back at Vas with wide eyes. Vas could only smile brightly, leaning forward to press his head to Josh’s, “I’ll show you what flirting is.”


End file.
